


Visitors (From the Back of Beyond)

by obsolete_theory (ersatzbeta)



Category: Saiyuki
Genre: AU, Humor, M/M, Sci-Fi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-01-02
Updated: 2011-08-21
Packaged: 2017-10-14 08:34:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 25,447
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/147372
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ersatzbeta/pseuds/obsolete_theory
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hakkai really wishes alien ships would stop landing on his property...</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is a Sci-fi AU in which Hakkai and, nominally, Gojyo are the poor schmuck farmers whose fields keep getting ruined by unexpected rocket ship landings, and Sanzo is an alien aboard one of those ships.
> 
> I've seen a lot of science fiction Saiyuki lately, and I thought I'd put my hand in. While the genre is one of my lifelong loves, I've never really tried writing it before. You can expect a certain amount of parody and mockery, but it's all lovingly meant.

Hakkai looked out over the fields with satisfaction. The land was awash with red—great masses of red flowers that trembled as the wind picked up fitfully now and again. Everything was calm and quiet and agreeably warm in the early summer sun, and there was a nice cross breeze coming in through the windows of the little house. Then there was a rattle-thump behind him. Hakkai looked over as the hatch to the cellar flopped backward. Gojyo pulled himself halfway through the square opening. He rested on folded arms for a minute, then shimmied up onto the floor, closing the hatch once his legs were clear.

"All set," said Gojyo. "The solar circuits are working right again."

Gojyo smiled and patted the hatch beside him. Though he sounded nonchalant, Hakkai could tell by the sweat on his brow and the grease and dirt that streaked his arms and hands, that the job had not been as easy as he made it out to be. Hakkai brought him a drink and a rag on which to wipe his hands. Gojyo took both with a grateful look.

"Mmm," said Hakkai. "Tell me, do you think we might be able to increase the capacity further? I'd hate for all this sunshine to go to waste."

"Dunno," said Gojyo. "Maybe, but we'd have to run more lines, inside and out, to make that work, and some of those junction boxes are kinda old…"

Hakkai moved back to the window, observing the landscape. A minute later, Gojyo joined him, slinging a thankfully clean arm around his shoulders. He sipped from his glass with his free hand.

"It's looking good out there," he said. "But I still say you ought to plant more than just the red ones."

"Kanaan would have liked it," said Hakkai.

He stared out a little more, imagining the two of them—he and Kanaan— running through it all, maybe having a picnic. Holding hands. Kanaan's head leaning against his shoulder, the scent of her hair wafting up. Hakkai sighed. If only…

Gojyo cleared his throat and Hakkai had the presence of mind to feel guilty.

"Sorry," said Gojyo. "I didn't mean to put my foot in it."

Gojyo tensed, but he didn't pull away. He set his glass down on the windowsill.

"Not at all," said Hakkai. "I rather think she would have liked you as well."

Hakkai tried to add Gojyo to the fantasy, but it was too strange, that intersection of past and present, of longing and knowing what was and was not possible, and the idyll dissipated. He made a conscious effort not to feel disappointed.

As it was, Hakkai was quite happy, quite content, with the way things were at the moment. There was peace on the planet, and the few troubles of the large metropolitan areas never seemed to reach this far out, frequent alien crash-landings notwithstanding. Hakkai had his land, which he found to be suitably isolated from the neighboring farms. He had books and clothes and all the sorts of material goods that made life comfortable. Hakkai had Gojyo too, tending the mechanical bits and pieces that kept their little corner of the universe running smoothly. Gojyo tended to Hakkai himself, as well.

Hakkai allowed himself another glance at Gojyo. Gojyo didn't say a word, didn't even twitch, but kept his eyes on the world outside the window.

Gojyo had arrived two years before, surviving the crash of his ship with great aplomb, getting his bearings within a week and settling in as if he'd lived here all his life. And when he'd cobbled together a new ship and had had the opportunity to continue his footloose and fancy-free exploration of the galaxy, he had, instead, stayed. Hakkai, though baffled, had been and still was grateful for the company. After all, Gojyo had come along so soon after Kanaan had died…it was only natural to latch onto something—someone—in so trying a time, if only to keep from drowning in one's lonely thoughts. So lonely, after sharing all one's life with another person. All that trust, love, intimacy. That unshakable bond, snapped.

Hakkai shook his head. Now was not the time to think of such things. He looked out over the flowers once again. It was hard not to imagine it as a great spill of blood. Her blood. But that was ridiculous. Not everything red in the world was blood. Hakkai flexed his clawed hands and tried not to think too hard about how it felt to rend flesh from bone.

He looked at Gojyo again and forced himself to smile. That red hair, those red eyes, were so different from his own—from those of his species—that Hakkai had had difficulty, in the beginning. For though Gojyo had neither claws nor fangs, he was strong, strong enough that Hakkai didn't make the mistake of treating him as if he were fragile more than once or twice. Gojyo could hold his own, and for that, Hakkai was grateful. Gojyo's arm was warm and weighty around his shoulders. He leaned subtly into the comfort of the embrace.

"Hey Hakkai!" said Gojyo.

From the tone of his voice, Hakkai gathered Gojyo had already tried, and failed, to get his attention.

"We've got company," said Gojyo.

"Company?" said Hakkai.

Gojyo's hand, warm as it was laid across his cheek, gently turned Hakkai's head ten degrees up and to the left. A golden dot of a spaceship was rapidly descending, square over the center of the red-flowered meadow.

Gojyo removed his hand, and Hakkai sighed. He stroked his jaw thoughtfully.

"Not again," he said. "This is the third time this growing cycle."

It seemed every time he finally got that particular field planted and flourishing, someone landed a spaceship in it. Perhaps in future it would be best to leave it fallow. Hakkai was not normally a man who was frustrated with the mysterious ways of the universe, but he really was rather partial to the red friss-flowers from both an aesthetic and culinary point of view.

Hakkai sighed again. Even the parts of the field that weren't burned to a crisp would be inedible, thanks to a backwash of what was, no doubt, super-heated chemical propellant of some kind or another.

"I'd better order some more seeds," Hakkai said. "And put in a request for a cultivar."

Gojyo set a data pad down on the windowsill in front of Hakkai.

"Way ahead of you," said Gojyo. "Seeds'll be here next week. Been waitlisted a couple months on the machinery, though. Seems like there's a lot of incursions these days to clean up after."

Hakkai frowned.

"I don't see why there can't be more species using less harmful methods of transportation," said Hakkai. "Our last visitor, Kougaiji…"

"Yeah, I know," said Gojyo. "Steam-based propulsion. Very clean."

Truthfully, the field had been soaked and knee-deep in mud for a week afterward, but it was better than toxic chemicals and having to wait around for a machine that cleaned the soil. The plants had held up remarkably well, once they'd been trimmed back and given time to produce new growth.

"I suppose we ought to prepare some sort of welcome," said Hakkai. "If you could—"

Gojyo cut him off with the wave of a hand.

"I know the drill," said Gojyo. "I'll go look for Hakuryuu."

He snorted and let go of Hakkai's shoulders with a squeeze.

"Never thought I'd be glad for a lizard," said Gojyo.

"You know perfectly well how fortunate we are to have an organic translator," said Hakkai.

He turned a stern face on Gojyo.

"Imagine if we only had the planetary language database," said Hakkai. "Hakuryuu is far superior to any mechanical computer, and in cases like these I am all too glad to have a lizard like him around."

Hakkai knew Gojyo was only joking, calling the little dragon a lizard, but Hakuryuu was invaluable and he did have feelings that could, all too easily, be hurt.

Gojyo sighed, and raised his hands in a gesture of defeat.

"Yeah, I know," said Gojyo. "Up shit creek without a paddle."

Hakkai raised an eyebrow. Two years of close association with Gojyo had brought him a good understanding of his language's peculiarities. Unfortunately, he had yet to train Gojyo out of using some of the more…colorful…idioms and figures of speech.

"Sorry, sorry," said Gojyo. "Look. I'll go look for Hakuryuu, and then I'll wash up real quick."

"I'll start the incursion paperwork," said Hakkai. "Amazing, how such events create such bureaucracy. You will, of course, be joining me for first contact?"

The way he said it was less of a question and more of a statement.

"Uh," said Gojyo.

It was obvious to Hakkai that Gojyo had planned to get out of it somehow. It pleased him how quickly Gojyo did an about face and capitulated.

"Yeah, sure," said Gojyo. "Like I said, Hakuryuu, then shower, and then…"

He held up his hands, placating. Hakkai smiled.

"Then we will walk the fields together," said Hakkai. "I believe we may have an hour or so before our guest—or guests—arrive."

He glanced out the window at the descending ship. It grew incrementally larger as he watched.

"My," said Hakkai. "They are coming in a bit fast, aren't they?"

He looked pointedly at Gojyo.

"You had better hurry," said Hakkai. "They will be here soon, and you will be there to greet them whether you are cleaned up or not."

"Right," said Gojyo. "I'm going now."

Gojyo strode out of the room.

Hakkai turned back to the window. His viewing of the flowers would have to be put aside. He found himself with little appetite for such things when he knew that, all too soon, the illusion of beauty and growth and peace would be destroyed by the golden dot hovering in the sky. He sighed again and focused on the data pad that lay before him.

For the third time in as many months, he called up the appropriate protocols and paperwork. Hakkai snuck one more glance at the incoming ship before he settled in to pick at the twenty-eight-pages-in-triplicate (not counting the loss of property subsection which was, in itself, an additional eleven pages) first-contact form. Hakkai felt a headache building behind his right eye already, and he had barely even begun.

It was going to be a long day.


	2. Chapter 2

Standing beside Gojyo, in the middle of the field of flowers, Hakkai shielded his mouth and nose from the last, acrid gusts of exhaust coming from the landing ship. He saw Gojyo did the same. Hakkai observed the ship with interest: the ship really was golden, a slender, golden oblong with a needle at the top and three spidery landing struts protruding from the bottom. He wondered what purpose the coloring served and how it was so well preserved. Normally, exposure to space dust and the like would strip enameling or paint right off. Perhaps it was a part of the very material of the ship's hull?

Then, the configuration of the ship changed and Hakkai forgot all about the ship's color. A doorway formed—or if not formed, was made apparent—in the side of the ship closest to them, evidenced by a thin, dark line zigzagging its way around one of the barely discernible hull plates. The plate in question detached from the top first, swinging out from the ship until it was parallel to the ground. Whatever it was made of—Metal? Organics? Ceramics?—shivered, and the plate changed shape until it was rounded, like a stepping stone. It hovered, completely detached from the ship. And then a being stepped through the doorway and onto the golden disc. The disc descended smoothly and silently to the ground.

The being riding the plate down was, in fact, quite ordinary-looking: man-shaped, blond hair. The only things unusual about it—him?—were the luminous purple eyes and a red dot in the center of the forehead. The being looked at them and frowned, wrinkling up what would have been an otherwise attractive face. Hakkai noted its attire, a flight suit of some kind, was of the skintight variety. It stopped just short of total exposure and indecency, owing largely to the fact that it appeared to be layered, a tasteful neutral shade over black that covered from wrists to ankles. At least, Hakkai presumed as much since boots and gloves obscured the alien's extremities.

When the plate hovered an inch above the ground, the alien stepped off, and the golden disc shot back up again, forming itself seamlessly into place again.

"My name-title is Sanzo," said the alien.

Hakkai decided that this Sanzo was probably a male of the species, based on temperament alone. In Hakkai's experience, females were less…abrupt during first contact.

"I come from the planet Chang-An," said Sanzo.

He spoke with exaggerated carefulness and a definite sneer, as if he expected them to be poor, simple folk easily impressed with his entrance. Hakkai found it most distasteful. Really, if this was how this species conducted first contact… Hakkai exchanged a glance with Gojyo, who rolled his eyes.

They—Hakkai's people—already had sublight and FTL ships; matter converters and organic circuitry; adaptive shielding. They'd cured all diseases once thought to be incurable on their planet, had solved poverty and hunger as if they were no more than a set of finicky mathematical equations; and their environment was pristine; all their once-endangered animals now flourished again. It would have been obvious from a simple orbital scan that this was no backwater planet.

Still, the representative of the alien ship couldn't have seemed more critical in the less than five minutes since he'd arrived. Hakkai took exception to this Sanzo's attitude.

"If you would so kindly move your ship," said Hakkai. "There is a designated landing pad one kilometer south."

"What?" said Sanzo.

He went from sneering to a rather irritated and, dare Hakkai say it, constipated expression. Assuming, of course, that Sanzo's species suffered from such digestive complications.

"My apologies," said Hakkai. "Am I not speaking slowly enough for you to understand?"

He nodded to Gojyo, who affected a particularly slow and stupid look.

"Move ship," said Gojyo, gesturing. "South. One kilometer."

He pointed stiffly in that direction and Hakkai could tell he was trying hard not to roll his eyes again. Sanzo looked back and forth between Hakkai and Gojyo.

"Is that better?" said Hakkai.

"This was not what I expected," said Sanzo.

The wrinkles between his eyebrows deepened.

"Oh?" said Hakkai. "I apologize if we disappoint you, but you are in my field, ruining my crops."

Sanzo looked around, arms crossed over his chest.

"Flowers?" Sanzo said. "You're growing flowers?"

"Look, buddy," said Gojyo. "Just move the damn ship and you can gawk around all you want."

Gojyo went from slack-jawed yokel to bright and sharp and aggressive in an instant, and Hakkai appreciated this transformation. He wondered if Sanzo did, too, or if he simply took the insulting tone at face value.

 

"Fine," said Sanzo. "Move south."

He spoke into the air, mouth pinched tight. Hakkai looked at their guest with some concern.

"I'm not taking that crap from you," said Sanzo. "It was your idea to stop here, of all places. Now get going."

The ship shuddered upward again, expelling more hot exhaust as it went. Then, it made its way safely above the tree line and rapidly out of sight. Hakkai looked at the friss-flowers. He sighed. As he had feared, they were burnt to a crisp.

"Now," said Hakkai. "Would you like to introduce yourself again? My name is Hakkai, and this is my homeworld. Forgive me if I don't shake hands."

He gestured to Sanzo and was amused by the surprise Sanzo seemed to show at the sight of his claws. Had this alien really noticed so little about the people he met?

"My name-title is Sanzo," said Sanzo. "My homeworld is Chang-An."

He gave a grudging sort of movement that might be construed as a bow of greeting, had Hakkai been feeling kind.

"I don't believe I'm familiar with your world," said Hakkai. "Did you travel very far?"

"It's on the edge of the Boddhisat sector, territory held by the cult of the Merciful Goddess." said Sanzo. "I've come on a mission of peaceful exploration."

Gojyo snorted and shifted from one foot to the other.

"And that would explain the plas-cannons and vortex-class shielding on your ship how?" said Gojyo. "That's a lot of firepower for so-called peaceful exploration."

Hakkai raised an eyebrow. Gojyo did have a better eye for that sort of thing, but he himself hadn't caught a hint of any of it. Perhaps he'd been distracted too much by the color of the ship…and its occupant.

"Funny, I didn't catch your name," said Sanzo. "And my ship is none of your concern."

Gojyo grunted and stuck out a hand. Sanzo looked at him like it was a dead animal. Gojyo returned his hand to his pants pocket.

"Sha Gojyo," he said. "Traveler extraordinaire, hailing from…well…here, now, I guess, which makes your ship my business."

"Oh really?" said Sanzo.

Gojyo stepped forward aggressively, hair swinging across his face. He brushed it back with a hand that was already curled into a loose fist, an obvious threat. Sanzo faced him squarely, not backing down an inch, though Gojyo was taller and broader through the shoulders.

Hakkai thought quickly. If Gojyo and Sanzo got into a fight, it would no doubt be Hakkai who mopped up afterward. The idea did not please him in the least, and so he intervened in their territorial face-off.

"Now, now," said Hakkai.

He put a restraining hand on Gojyo's shoulder. He squeezed hard enough that Gojyo gave him a quick glance.

"The universe is a very large place," said Hakkai. "I'm sure Sanzo's ship is designed purely to defend itself."

He turned to Sanzo again, confident that Gojyo wouldn't make a move.

"Are you traveling alone?" said Hakkai.

Sanzo turned his head, the mulishness in his expression and in the set of his shoulders softening a touch.

"Not exactly," said Sanzo.

"And will we be meeting this not exactly?" said Hakkai. "You must understand, I have paperwork to fill out, and if there's another being in your party who sets foot on my land…"

Hakkai sighed, thinking of the seven pages that each additional being would generate. The intricacies of government policy baffled him. He didn't know who had decided that it was a good idea to make citizens like himself fill out the attendant paperwork, but he would very much like to have words with this person.

"Paperwork?" said Sanzo. "Are you a bureaucrat?"

"As I said before, I'm a farmer," said Hakkai. "But our government is well prepared for instances such as these—first contact and the like."

Sanzo glared down his nose at Hakkai, as if he resented his presence being relegated to the unsatisfactory category of first contact. Hmm. Perhaps Sanzo was an important figure on his home world?

"I can order him to stay on the ship," said Sanzo. "He'd probably eat you out of house and home anyway."

Hakkai looked at Gojyo. To him, Gojyo's face showed all too plainly that Gojyo didn't like the idea of whoever-it-was going hungry, all alone on an alien planet. Truth be told, it didn't sit well with Hakkai either. He gave Gojyo's shoulder a pat and let him go.

"I'm sure it wouldn't be too much trouble," said Hakkai. "You could contact your shipmate and let him know."

Sanzo blinked one long, slow blink.

"Done," said Sanzo. "He's on his way."

Was it Hakkai's imagination, or did Sanzo's expression seem just a hair less sour?

"So," said Gojyo. "We never did get the name of your friend on board your ship."

"His name is Goku," said Sanzo.

And then, after a moment of hesitation:

"He's a genetic construct," said Sanzo.

His eyes wandered the fields.

"Ah, I see," said Hakkai. "I take it he and you are telepathic."

Sanzo grunted, but still avoided looking too closely at the two of them.

"Just him to me," said Sanzo. "And I to him. You don't need to worry that we'll go walking through your heads."

Sanzo looked rather unhappy about Hakkai's perceptiveness. Ah well. The signs hadn't been hard to see. Hakkai did wonder, though, why Sanzo chose to speak out loud to this Goku, if they could indeed speak mind to mind. But then, there were some worlds that disapproved of the pursuit of genetic engineering, and it would be prudent of them to communicate aloud.

"I should hope not," said Hakkai. "It would be rather rude. And as it is, we have a small confession to make as well. Hakuryuu!"

A whistle cut through the air, and a small, white dragon flew toward them. Sanzo had the good grace to be startled by the sudden appearance, even if he did cover for it quickly. Hakuryuu landed on Hakkai's shoulder, and Hakkai scratched the dragon's chin. Hakuryuu craned his neck in Sanzo's direction.

"This is Hakuryuu," said Hakkai. "He's a construct as well, though I suspect he is quite a bit different from your shipmate. His primary purpose is to serve as a translator."

Sanzo stared at the little dragon. Hakkai could see that Sanzo was having difficulty equating Hakuryuu with a computerized translator. Hakkai smiled.

"I trust he hasn't caused any interference in your other telepathic bond?" said Hakkai.

Sanzo shook his head. He didn't appear to be angry, but he also seemed far from pleased.

"How long has it been eavesdropping?" said Sanzo.

He spoke with an evident reluctance and a certain level of distaste, though Hakkai couldn't determine whether it was over Hakuryuu himself or what Hakuryuu did.

"He's been translating our conversation so far," said Hakkai. "But if you'd rather not have Hakuryuu leaning on your mind's language centers, I'm sure we could muddle through with the computer databases instead."

At length, Sanzo shook his head again.

"That won't be necessary," said Sanzo. "Is there anything else I should know about your construct?"

"Only that he comes and goes as he pleases," said Hakkai. "And he's quite capable of blending in with his surroundings."

Hakkai gave Hakuryuu another scratch, this time on the chest, and shooed the dragon off. Before Hakuryuu had flown five meters, he vanished again. Sanzo stared after him.

"Don't worry," said Hakkai. "Hakuryuu has plenty of range. As long as he's within ten kilometers, we'll be able to understand each other."

"I see," said Sanzo.

He stiffened for a second, then sighed.

"Goku's coming," he said. "If you don't want him trampling your flowers, we should meet him at the edge of the field."

"My crops have already taken considerable damage today," said Hakkai. "It would probably be best to meet your companion."

Sanzo's shoulders tightened.

"It's not my fault that the red fields make such a distinctive landing target," said Sanzo.

Hakkai drew in a breath and tried to remain calm. Gojyo's hand dropped onto his shoulder, and Hakkai appreciated the contact. It helped him to better reign in his temper, over which his control was rapidly eroding.

Sanzo seemed to sense this, because he proceeded to give a non-apology.

"We don't go around deliberately breaking the laws of other species," he said. "If there had been some sort of beacon in orbit with landing instructions, or contact from some facility here on the surface, we would have obeyed."

"Charming," said Gojyo.

He spoke quietly and into Hakkai's ear, for Hakkai alone.

Hakkai exhaled and pushed his unreasonably emotional reaction back behind his pleasant persona. It was absurd, the way he was behaving. What must their guest think of him? The way Sanzo looked at him now was no comfort. He gathered his thoughts.

"We are, generally speaking, not a space-faring species," Hakkai said. "Though we are quite capable, it is rare that we leave our planet, let alone the system."

"Oh?" said Sanzo. "Any particular reason?"

Hakkai felt himself tense up again. This really was a subject best broached somewhere more comfortable. It would take some explaining, and he'd prefer to do that while seated and out of the all-too-hot mid-day sun.

"Are we meeting your companion or not?" said Hakkai. "Come along, please."

Without waiting for a reply, he turned his back and started walking, Gojyo in tow. He heard Sanzo fall into step behind them and was pacified.

Perhaps this wouldn't be so difficult after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I realize I'm being rather liberal, pulling together these sundry sorts of sci-fi references/bits/ideas. It's an admittedly salad-bar approach, but I hope it's working for you. I'm having a good time writing it, that's for sure!
> 
> As always, it's a self-editing job. If something's really weird, please let me know so I can take a look.


	3. Chapter 3

They made it to the road at the edge of the field before Sanzo's traveling companion, but only just. After a minute or two of silence between the three of them, Sanzo's head whipped to the left: south. Hakkai's sensitive ears picked up a drumming sound, regular like someone running down the hard-packed dirt road.

"Sanzo?" said Hakkai. "Is that?"

Sanzo sighed. He crossed his arms and nodded, his expression daring Hakkai to make further conversation.

"Check it out," said Gojyo.

He pointed and Hakkai followed the line of sight. A plume of dust rose into the sky above the road. A small figure raced toward them, coming up a small rise in the grade and into view with astonishing speed.

"Hey, Sanzo!"

Goku waved both his arms while yelling, though this didn't seem to slow him down in the least. In fact, he seemed to speed up when he saw Sanzo.

In less time than Hakkai would have thought possible, Goku was there. His hair, brown like the earth Hakkai tilled, seemed to be in a permanent state of dishevelment. He wore a flight suit similar to Sanzo's, and, like Sanzo's, it pushed the boundaries of decency, though his was green over tan. Goku flung himself at Sanzo, and Sanzo appeared to be overwhelmed. It seemed a proper introduction was not in the offing. Hakkai struggled with himself to say something polite.

"My," said Hakkai. "He seems to be quite fit, doesn't he?"

His words were pitched low enough that only Gojyo could hear them over Goku's enthusiastic reunion with Sanzo.

"No kidding," said Gojyo. 

And then, looking at Goku as he bounced around Sanzo in an erratic orbit of the man, punctuated with laughter and too-fast talking and emphatic gestures, never slowing down for an instant:

"No wonder Sanzo wanted to leave him on the ship."

Gojyo's voice held equal parts fascination and horror.

In the blink of an eye, Goku whirled around and kicked him in the shin.

"Ow, shit!" said Gojyo.

Gojyo limped, rubbing at the injury. He glared at Goku.

"You shouldn't say stuff like that," said Goku. "He wouldn't leave me behind, not ever."

Goku glared back at Gojyo, and Hakkai was interested to see he had golden eyes.

Sanzo cuffed Goku, and Goku turned those eyes on Sanzo next.

"Shit," said Goku. "That hurt! Sanzo!"

"Do you _want_ to start an interplanetary incident?" said Sanzo. "We're guests."

"But he—" said Goku.

"Apologize," said Sanzo. "Now."

When Goku stood there too long, looking at his feet, Sanzo shoved him forward.

"Sorry," said Goku.

He was still staring down at the ground and therefore made that pronouncement to his feet.

Hakkai glanced at Gojyo, who appeared to have changed his mind, from angry to amused and smothering a smile behind a hand.

"Apology accepted, kid," said Gojyo.

He reached out quick and ruffled Goku's hair. Goku swatted his hand away.

"'m not a kid," said Goku. "I'm five hundred years old!"

Hakkai's eyebrows rose at that. Five hundred? He didn't look more than fifteen.

"Goku," said Sanzo.

He gave Goku a look, and Hakkai knew it all too well. Sometimes he himself used the very same expression when talking to Gojyo about, oh, cleaning up his messes, or not smoking indoors. (Hakkai still couldn't understand why Gojyo didn't want to have the anti-addiction treatment that was available. Half an hour at the closest medical facility and he'd never feel the need for a cigarette again. Strange, how seeing that look on someone else's face made him want to try again to convince Gojyo that undergoing treatment was to his advantage.)

Goku scowled mutinously. Sanzo scowled back, and Goku deflated a little.

"Fine," said Goku. "I'm eighteen. Still not a kid, though."

"Whatever you say, kid," said Gojyo. "Whatever you say."

He held up his hands and his teeth flashed in a smile. Hakkai responded to that teasing warmth, even though it wasn't directed toward him; he felt just a little less tense about this latest first-contact, a little more accepting of the unscheduled arrival.

Hakkai watched the two of them, Gojyo and Goku, teasing and chasing and running, circling around the road.  Then he turned to Sanzo, who was also watching them roughhouse.

"Our home is at the end of this road, if you'd care to come inside," said Hakkai. "Gojyo will keep Goku out of trouble."

Not that Hakkai believed there would be trouble, and not that Sanzo wouldn't know, what with the telepathic link he and Goku shared, but Hakkai wanted his guest at ease.

"He can handle himself," said Sanzo.

His eyes kept being drawn back to Goku. Hakkai followed his gaze. Goku was fast and unexpectedly graceful, and Hakkai wondered what, exactly, his purpose as a construct was. He had a feeling it wasn't translation or conversation.

"No doubt," said Hakkai.

Sanzo looked at him sharply then. Still, he seemed to find nothing amiss, because he let out a sigh and turned his back to Gojyo and Goku.

"I don't suppose you have any tea at this house of yours," said Sanzo.

"I think I can find something to suit you," said Hakkai. "Follow me."

Hakkai wanted to laugh at the way Sanzo eyed the teacup. Hakkai had to admit that the sight of the tea—murky red-brown—might be a little alarming to someone not conversant with the particular blend, but that really was no reason to behave as if one expected it to be not tea, but poison.

"What is it?" said Sanzo.

He tipped the cup a little, as if to better examine its contents.

"Tea," said Hakkai.  
   
He waited, expectant, for Sanzo to take a sip. After a minute, Hakkai sighed and began to drink his own. The tea was hot enough to scald on the way down, but he was long-accustomed to that. He set his cup down again.

"It's really quite good," said Hakkai. "It's made from the friss-flowers I grow here."

Sanzo looked dubiously out toward the fields and back to his tea.

"Those ones?" said Sanzo.

"Yes," said Hakkai.

"No caffeine, then," said Sanzo. "Figures."

Hakkai nearly held his breath when Sanzo finally lifted the cup to his lips. He swallowed. After a minute or two, Sanzo grunted. He took another sip. Hakkai waited. In due course, his guest looked up from his drink.

"Not bad," Sanzo said. "Better than what we've got on the ship."

It seemed that grudging assessment was as good as Hakkai was going to get. Hakkai smothered his feelings—equal parts rancor and pride—with another swallow of tea.

"I'm glad," said Hakkai. "I wouldn't imagine a ship that size would be able to carry much in the way of nonessentials."

"It carries enough," said Sanzo. "But there's no excuse for the sorts of drinks the damn thing synthesizes."

Hmm. His guest had chosen to interpret his attempt to sympathize as a slur. Very telling.

"I understand," said Hakkai. "I never could explain to Gojyo that some things aboard ship should be real."

He shuddered, remembering the so-called coffee that Gojyo's rebuilt ship was capable of producing.

"I thought you said you didn't do space travel," said Sanzo.

The way he frowned really was unattractive. It wrinkled up his forehead and carved unhappy lines at the corners of his mouth.

"Gojyo has kindly taken me on circuit within the system," said Hakkai. "But we have always returned here."

Truthfully, the idea hadn't much pleased him then, and he'd steadfastly refused to go outside the system. The thought of being so far from home made him feel a little ill, and to leave Kanaan's grave—and the sites of all his memories of her—behind, even for the weeks or months it might take to go to the nearest system and back, was unconscionable. Fortunately, Gojyo had understood.

Hakkai cleared his throat and took another sip of tea. He brought out the data pad that had the first contact forms on it. He paged through the documents and sighed, feeling a nascent headache start behind one eye.

"Would you mind terribly going over these forms with me?" said Hakkai. "It may be more expedient for you and I to fill them out together."

  
Sanzo said nothing. Hakkai leaned back casually in his seat and considered what tactic might convince Sanzo.

"It's in the interest of interstellar cooperation, of course," said Hakkai. "I'm afraid our government is rather overzealous when it comes to information gathering. It really would be best to fill out the forms here, but if you'd rather go into the nearest departmental office and deal with the paid bureaucrats…"

Sanzo fiddled with his teacup for a quiet minute, but he nodded his head in the end.

"As long as we make it quick," said Sanzo. "If Goku comes in in the middle, he'll ask questions about the questions and we'll never get anything done."

"Very well," said Hakkai. "I believe I know your name, so I'll just put that in here."

The data pad beeped accommodatingly as Hakkai entered the data. He looked up at Sanzo and did his best to appear incurious, hoping that his disinterest would set his guest at ease.

"What brings you to our humble planet?" said Hakkai. "As I recall, you said it was peaceful exploration."

"That's right," said Sanzo.

Hakkai pressed a few more keys on the pad, filling in the provided lines one by one.

"And what is the name of your vessel?" said Hakkai. "Does it have a registry number of some kind?"

"My ship is the _Maten_ ," said Sanzo. "Only a handful of other ships like her were ever built. No registry number."

"Oh?" said Hakkai.

It was unusual, to say the least. No registry number? Hakkai frowned.

"Your world doesn't keep track of its ships?" he said.

"I didn't say that," said Sanzo. "But my ship doesn't have a registry number. It's too old."

Hakkai felt his eyebrows climb into his hairline at that.

"Too old?" said Hakkai.

"No one knows exactly how old," said Sanzo. "But the _Maten_ is…special. She's at least a thousand years old, from before we started with all that registry number crap."

Hakkai goggled, albeit politely.

"Excuse me?" he said.

Sanzo's lip curled, revealing a hint of teeth. Whether it was out of scorn or amusement, Hakkai couldn't say.

"You heard me," said Sanzo. "The _Maten_ 's flight records go back a thousand years. There's been a Sanzo at her controls for at least that long. Before that, it's anyone's guess."

Hakkai was having difficulty. A thousand years of people like Sanzo? It all seemed so dynastic.

"Do you mean to say that Sanzo isn't your name?" said Hakkai. "It's some sort of inherited title?"

Sanzo sighed and his mouth looked pinched.

"It is a political designation," said Sanzo. "When a Sanzo ascends, the birth name is shed and the name-title of Sanzo replaces it."

It sounded lonely to Hakkai, lonely and awful. But all this business of ascension and titles reminded him of something else Sanzo had said.

"You mentioned a cult," said Hakkai. "Am I to assume that your political structure is also religious in nature?"

Sanzo looked angry then.

"I'm under no obligation to say anything," said Sanzo.

Sanzo's jaw worked, and Hakkai could tell he was grinding his teeth.

"Then I shall resort to guessing," said Hakkai. "But please, feel free to jump in at any time."

This didn't seem to make Sanzo any happier, but Hakkai felt it necessary to outline his suspicions, if only for his own clarification. He cleared his throat and began.

 "One, you said there were only a handful of ships like yours," said Hakkai. "Two, you also admitted that there has always been someone of your rank to look after your ship. I assume that it is the same for the rest of those ships, and that, therefore, you are of a very high standing indeed."

Hakkai scrutinized him over the top of the data pad he held, watching the minute changes in Sanzo's expression. There was something there, something that he couldn't put his finger on, that gave Hakkai a bad feeling. Still, he was nothing if not determined, and so he continue on with his assessment.

"I can't imagine the actual leaders of your government, whoever they might be, would be allowed to journey so far from home without a certain level of pomp and circumstance," said Hakkai. "So, if we consider the very top of the government to be the first tier, I would guess you might be the second or third."

Sanzo's eyes narrowed unpleasantly, and Hakkai surmised he'd—as Gojyo might say—hit the nail on the head.

His satisfaction at filling in the gaps was cut short when Sanzo pulled out a needler and pointed its snub nose at Hakkai. Hakkai noticed, distractedly, that while it appeared somewhat venerable, it was worn and polished in a manner that suggested it was well-loved. Hakkai dropped the data pad onto the table.

"Sanzo, what—" said Hakkai.

"Shut up," said Sanzo.

Hakkai nodded slowly, being sure to appear as harmless as possible. Pity he'd ignored his better instincts before, or he might not be in this mess now.

"Now," said Sanzo. "You and I are going to walk out that door, and we are going to go to my ship. Goku and I are going to get on that ship, unharmed, and we are going to leave. You will cooperate, or I'll blow your brains out."

Hakkai felt cold. What in heaven's name was going on? Unharmed? Why would he want to harm them?

"I don't understand," Hakkai said.

"Shut up," said Sanzo.

His grip on the needler tightened, and one finger crept incrementally closer to the trigger.

"I don't know how they got to you, and I don't care," he said. "I'll be damned if I'm going to let anyone try to take me hostage again."

"Hostage?" said Hakkai. "I don't—"

There was a whine and then the scent of burned hair, and a warmth spread across the tip of his right ear. Hakkai sneaked a hand up and felt of himself. The needler blast had passed close enough to him to scorch his hair but hadn't touched skin.

"The next one won't miss," said Sanzo.

The look in Sanzo's eyes was distant and wild, and Hakkai could see he was visibly holding himself back. Sanzo was, apparently, very tightly strung. Perhaps this confrontation had been inevitable. Hakkai couldn't be sure of anything right now.

"Very well," said Hakkai. "I'm going to get up now."

With infinite care, he stood up. He was acutely aware of a tightness building in his chest, one not dispelled by deep, slow breaths. His thoughts rabbited about in his head. He felt himself slide toward the border between distress and outright panic. Hakkai was hyperaware of every sound, every scent, and every movement in the room. He could hear Sanzo's heartbeat, hear his breathing like it was his own, could smell the adrenaline leaching out in Sanzo's sweat. When Sanzo shifted his left thumb on the needler's grip, Hakkai struggled with the urge to deal violently with this threat to his person. If the weapon were pointed anywhere but directly between his eyes, Hakkai was sure he could disarm Sanzo safely. As it was, things were at a standstill. He had to go along with Sanzo, to survive until he could think of a better way.

And then the front door rattled open and Gojyo and Goku walked in, their arms full of flowers, and everything changed. They were talking, laughing, and it took a moment for them to realize that something was wrong. Sanzo swung around and aimed at Gojyo, who dropped the bunch of friss-flowers he had carried, stems slung over one shoulder and a riot of blossoms against his hair.  Horror swept through Hakkai. Gojyo shoved Goku to the side, out of harm's way. Goku skidded and rolled on the floor. Hakkai's blood thundered through his veins and he couldn't hear through the beating of his heart and the wash of his blood in his veins. Everything was moving so slowly. The flowers tumbled through the air, falling, and it seemed they'd never touch the ground. Hakkai met Gojyo's gaze for one electric second, and he saw shock write and rewrite itself in Gojyo's brilliantly red eyes. Hakkai had to protect him. Red petals exploded outward from Gojyo's feet as the flowers hit the floor.

Hakkai saw red _everywhere_. Red, red, _red_. He tackled Sanzo to the ground, sent the needler flying out of his hands and across the floor, knocked over the small table and the tea cups and the godforsaken data pad. He heard Gojyo yelling, something about a mistake, but it was so far away. It wasn't as important as keeping his hands around Sanzo's throat, keeping him pinned to the ground, the strength of his whole body behind the movement. Hakkai felt someone at his back and he lashed out with one hand, knocking the disturbance away for a moment before locking his fingers around his target.

Sanzo scrabbled at Hakkai's hands, tried to pry them off from around his neck, scribing fiery lines with his nails in the process. Hakkai refused to let go. He'd threatened Gojyo, and such a threat would not be tolerated. How frail the body beneath him was, how easy it would be to snap his neck in one move. Hakkai's breathing was so loud; he panted and, though he tried to control it, it was still deafeningly loud. His lips pulled back from his teeth. Hakkai felt _feral_.

Sanzo was quiet beneath him. His throat worked fruitlessly beneath Hakkai's fingers, but he couldn't draw breath. Hakkai made sure of that. He looked down and thought how the eyes, violet and already beginning to haze over from lack of oxygen, would dull and flatten in death, and the skin of that pretty face would go slack. All Sanzo could do about it would be to struggle as he did now, and those struggles weakened as the seconds ticked by. Hakkai could kill him. It would be like swatting a fly.

At that, something in Hakkai was suddenly calm. He felt centered. It surprised him into further awareness. Someone's hands dug into his shoulders. It was an iron grip. Hakkai turned his head to find Goku there, desperation written clearly in his face. Goku tugged at him, and Hakkai felt how strong he was, saw the flex and bunch of the muscles in his arms and shoulders, and Hakkai wondered why Sanzo's hands were wrapped so loosely around his wrists. None of this made sense.

The noise in the room that had been washing over him clarified then, resolved itself into a familiar voice. It wasn't, as he'd thought, an extension of his own wild, out of control breathing. Hakkai twisted around further and saw Gojyo stood over the three of them, and he was still talking urgent and loud, just a little less than shouting.

"Let him go, dammit," said Gojyo. "It's a fucking mistake and you're going to fucking kill him if you don't stop!"

For the first time that Hakkai could recall, Gojyo hit him, right across the face, and the shock of it was enough to make him let go. Goku hauled him off Sanzo roughly and all Hakkai could do after that was sit, numb, as Goku tended to Sanzo. Sanzo coughed and wheezed and Goku spoke quietly into his ear even as his hands ran over him again and again, searching for injury or comfort in the familiar. Hakkai had left a ring of livid bruises around Sanzo's throat. Goku glared at him, once, his golden eyes bright with anger, before returning all his attention to Sanzo. Hakkai put a hand to his cheek and felt the warmth of a bruise forming there. He wondered if Sanzo felt this warmth as well.

Then Hakkai was hauled backward against Gojyo's hard chest, pinned by those strong arms. Almost involuntarily, he wrenched himself away from looking at the visitors. He stared instead at Gojyo, who stared right back. They sat quietly on the floor for a minute before Gojyo broke the silence.

"What the hell were you thinking?" said Gojyo. "No, don't answer that. I know exactly what you're thinking."

Hakkai found he was trembling like a leaf and probably couldn't have put two words together if he'd wanted. He stroked his bruised cheek in lieu of talking, which just seemed so pointless right now.

"You weren't thinking at all," said Gojyo. "Or maybe you were thinking about…shit, I don't know."

Gojyo's voice shook. He sighed and pushed the bangs out of Hakkai's face. Gojyo turned Hakkai's face into the light, likely examining the marks he had left behind. Hakkai felt terribly naked, being looked like this, but it was Gojyo, easy-going, gentle. Hakkai had thought Gojyo had understood him when they'd first met, when he was still in pieces after Kanaan's death. This man who knew him so well shouldn't have had to ask why. Perhaps he'd overestimated their relationship.

"Maybe it was _her_ ," said Gojyo. "Maybe me."

Or perhaps not. Hakkai felt himself gaping at Gojyo, who sighed and shook his head.

"I shouldn't have hit you," said Gojyo. "Sorry, but it was the only thing I could think to do."

"He was going to shoot you," said Hakkai. "I…he was going to _shoot_ you."

What was so difficult to understand about that? Hakkai struggled with the thoughts that looped like a broken recording. He didn't want Gojyo to be hurt, couldn't stand the thought. True, there hadn't been a thing he could have done for Kanaan—it had been too late by half—but Gojyo…Hakkai shook his head. Not that he was incapable of telling them apart because they were completely different. Completely different people, completely different situations. He trusted Gojyo, implicitly, to take care of himself, but there was still the nagging urge to look after him.

"I know," said Gojyo. "I know."

Hakkai then realized he had said some of this out loud. He was mortified that he didn't know how much.

"Shh," said Gojyo. "C'mon. Let's get you cleaned up."

Gojyo helped him off the floor, but he didn't let him go once they were standing. Hakkai felt he ought to have felt offended at the way Gojyo was handling him, but instead he was absurdly pleased with Gojyo's tendency toward the demonstrative.

"But Sanzo," said Hakkai. "I've got to do…something."

Hakkai didn't know, exactly, what he could do to make up for his transgressions.

"He's got Goku looking after him," said Gojyo.

Gojyo's arms tightened around him, nearly crushing him and making it hard to breathe. Hakkai could feel both their hearts beating, far too fast. Gojyo leaned his face against Hakkai's and his breath stirred the hair there, singed as it was. Hakkai wondered if Gojyo could smell it.

"He was going to shoot you too, you know," said Gojyo. "'S damn stupid of you to do that."

"Gojyo," said Hakkai. "There's—"

"I don't want to hear it," said Gojyo. "Save that self-sacrificing crap for someone else."

He stamped his foot in what was, no doubt, a powerful and masculine way, determined to stop Hakkai's protesting. At least, Hakkai took it that way. Unfortunately the emphatic gesture didn't do much for the data pad on the floor, which was what Hakkai had been trying to warn Gojyo about in the first place. _Crunch_. Hakkai sighed. Gojyo looked down and gingerly lifted his foot. Broken pieces of technology fell from the sole of his boot. Gojyo had the grace to look chagrinned.

"I tried to warn you," said Hakkai.

"I know," said Gojyo. "So I'll clean it up later."

"I can get it," said Hakkai. "Really. I feel fine."

The truth was he felt very far from fine, but he doubted that it would be all that difficult to get a broom and dustpan. No, the hard part would be cleaning up the mess he'd apparently made when he'd—and he cringed away from the thought—gone after Sanzo. Hakkai looked out of the corner of his eye and saw Goku still fussing over Sanzo, still on the floor, while Sanzo looked pointedly at the ceiling, acting like nothing was wrong at all. Hakkai appreciated that forced obliviousness. He wished he could do it himself.

"I'll get Sanzo and Goku settled," Gojyo said. "Then later we're all going to sit down and talk."

Hakkai found himself remarkably resistant to the idea of sitting down for a civilized conversation with Sanzo. His guilt over the affair added a certain strength to his reluctance.

"He tried to shoot you," said Hakkai. "I don't know how any amount of talking will resolve that."

He'd tried to modulate the anger in his voice but, from the way Gojyo looked at him, he hadn't been terribly successful.

"You'd be surprised," said Gojyo. "C'mon. Up to bed with you."

His hands rested gently on the small of Hakkai's back and on his elbow, guiding Hakkai away from the mess he'd made. Hakkai shrugged him off as gently as he could.

"Really Gojyo," said Hakkai. "I'm not an invalid. I can manage by myself."

He tried his best to smile as he fled the room.

The sudden touch of a hand on his shoulder launched Hakkai into a state of heart-pounding awareness. It took him a few seconds to place the scent and feel of who it was: Gojyo.

"We've got a problem," said Gojyo. "Wouldn't have woken you if I could've helped it."

He hadn't meant to fall asleep and didn't, in fact, even remember getting to the bedroom. Was he even in the bedroom, or had he collapsed in the hallway? It took Hakkai a minute to shake off the dregs of sleep. He looked around cautiously. He was sprawled out on the bed, on top of the covers and fully clothed. He still had his shoes on; the toes of them pointed accusingly at the ceiling.

"Problem?" said Hakkai.

He followed Gojyo with his eyes as Gojyo powered up the wall console.

"Take a look at this," said Gojyo.

The innocuous government welcome screen glowed for a minute, and then a single word flashed across the screen, over and over. Hakkai shivered with dread. For once, he didn't have a clue what to do, didn't know where to begin to set things right. His skin crawled with unvoiced fears and questions. The word burned its way into his retinas.

Gojyo turned off the console and sat with him on the bed. Every time Hakkai blinked he could see the word, clear as day. It frightened him like nothing else, and even the familiar warmth and weight of Gojyo leaning against him did nothing to calm him. Hakkai closed his eyes and let the word pulse, unchecked.

 _Quarantine_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Drama! Drama! And again, drama! XD I swear, it'll start to make more sense in the next chapter.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter has been quite a while in the making, hasn't it? Anyway, at least it's here. (Apologies for such a gap between this and the previous chapter.) This one's a long one: eight thousand words and change.

A politely worded query for more information got Hakkai nowhere.

Neither he nor Gojyo nor their guests were to leave the boundaries of the property. Their ships were on lockdown and any attempt to board or fly them remotely would not be tolerated.

"I don't understand," said Hakkai. "One would think that if the infectious agent were so…"

"Bad," said Gojyo. "The word you're looking for is bad."

Hakkai waved a hand, impatient.

"Fine," he said. "If it were so bad, the government might be so kind as to tell us more about it."

"They probably don't want us to panic," said Gojyo.

"I assure you, I'm much more concerned when I don't have any information about the reason for the quarantine," said Hakkai. "Are we to watch for spots? A fever? A sudden aversion to light?"

Hakkai pushed his chair back from the console, determined not to let his frustrations get the best of him.

"And furthermore, how did the bureau know that we even had visitors?" said Hakkai. "I don't recall finishing, let alone sending, that paperwork."

Hakkai felt a blush creeping up his cheeks, and shame curled itself through his insides. He'd behaved so poorly. How would he ever make reparations? Goku had looked so angry, to say nothing of Sanzo… Hakkai shook his head.

"Must've been when I stepped on the pad," said Gojyo. "Hit just the right buttons before I broke it all to hell."

Hakkai looked at Gojyo, who seemed so crushed, so forlorn despite his cheerful tone. Hakkai dredged up a smile from somewhere. If he weren't so drained, he'd probably feel some affection for Gojyo and his smile would feel less fake.

"It's not your fault," said Hakkai. "The blame is, at the very least, equally mine. If I'd been more cautious, if I'd waited on the forms until I knew our guests better…"

He sighed, and leaned into Gojyo, who wrapped his arms around him. The point of his chin rested on Hakkai's shoulder, and Gojyo's hair spilled over the two of them, tickling the side of Hakkai's neck. Hakkai drew in a breath and Gojyo's scent flooded in—cigarettes, ozone, salt and sweat, good earth and the green-ness of growing plants.

"We'll figure it out," said Gojyo. "Don't worry. I've gotten out of tougher spots than this. A little thing like a quarantine isn't going to stop me from doing what I want. Besides, we're out of beer and cigarettes."

A weak laugh bubbled up in Hakkai. What it was that made Gojyo so capable, so steady, especially in such trying circumstances? Not for the first time, Hakkai wished he shared the ability.

"Heaven forefend," said Hakkai. "I don't think I could take being quarantined with someone in withdrawal."

Hakkai pulled himself together and gently withdrew from Gojyo's embrace.

"But before we take on the government, I'd like some answers from our guests," Hakkai said. "I don't like being kept in the dark."

Gojyo nodded. Hakkai looked on as Gojyo walked to the doorway, feeling lonely even though he hadn't—and wasn't—going very far.

"I'll go get the others," he said. "We'll wait for you downstairs."

"Thank you," said Hakkai.

He wanted to chase after Gojyo, to touch his shoulder, his hair, to run his fingers along the scars on his cheek. Hakkai wanted to take comfort in Gojyo's sheer physical presence, to revive the parts of him, inside, which still felt cold with fright from earlier, despite the nap he'd had. He needed time to regain his equilibrium. Gojyo was strong and warm and everything Hakkai wanted right now.  But still, just because one could depend on someone—and he could indeed depend on Gojyo—didn't mean one shouldn't try to stand on one's own.

So Hakkai let Gojyo go, though he fought himself and his claws dug into the soft flesh of his palms. He walked the few steps to the window beside the bed. He twitched the curtains open. The afternoon light was strong and he squinted as his eyes adjusted. The fields of flowers looked the same from here. The whole landscape seemed unchanged, though Hakkai knew that, just out of sight, was a foreign spaceship. Everything he could see was under quarantine. He wondered if the government had sent its lackeys around with quarantine barrier units already. Hakkai glanced up at the sky, but there was no discernible change in the quality of the sunlight. He sighed and let the curtains cut off the red-flowered view. It really was amazing what could happen in the course of a single day.

  
Without conscious volition, Hakkai found himself entering the kitchen. Where had the bedroom gone? When had he come down the long hallway and the staircase? He buried the questions and, instead, concentrated very hard on taking one step at a time across the room. The hairs on the back of his neck prickled with the knowledge that other people—Sanzo and Goku—were probably watching his every move, just waiting for him to take up where he'd left off earlier. He himself keenly felt the fear of this eventuality.

"What's this about?" said Sanzo.

Hakkai dared to lift his head up from his current view of the floor. Sanzo looked cross, and his voice was harsh and strained. His throat was bandaged, so Hakkai couldn't see how bad it was, really, but it was bad enough. The bandages did nothing to diminish Sanzo's attractiveness, Hakkai was embarrassed to find. He realized he was staring and so he busied himself sitting down just so on the single empty chair squeezed in around their small kitchen table. He nodded politely to Goku and Sanzo, who sat opposite. They didn't nod back. Gojyo squeezed his hand under the table.

Hakkai sighed and tried to guess what Gojyo would think if he knew Hakkai found Sanzo strangely irresistible now. Sanzo had been just an attractive face when they'd first met, but now that Hakkai had held the man's life in his hands… What had been safely off-limits before had been made much more tangible. Not that Hakkai liked doing violence to another person—and his thoughts skidded quickly around that distasteful idea—but now he knew something of what Sanzo's body felt like, and it was very difficult to dismiss it from his mind.

It was a topic of conversation for another time, maybe even after Sanzo and Goku were gone. Yes, perhaps he'd tell Gojyo then, confess. It was moot to say anything at this point. There was no chance of anything but animosity between him and Sanzo now, Hakkai knew, though what he didn't know was if he had had any chance at the start. He remembered Sanzo's disdain and sighed. It seemed unlikely.

  
Gojyo nudged Hakkai in the ribs, bringing him back to the reality of the situation with a start. Sanzo looked pale and angry, and Goku alternated between shooting Hakkai dirty looks and acting like he was going to pack Sanzo in cotton wool at the drop of a hat. Sanzo kept swatting his hands away. It made Hakkai want to laugh; Gojyo had behaved in much the same way when they'd first met and Hakkai's wounds were still healing. He wondered if Sanzo really appreciated Goku's obvious concerns. Probably not.

"Well," said Hakkai.

He cleared his throat and tried to look at nothing in particular, even as Sanzo's eyes bored into him. My, the kitchen sink needed a good cleaning, didn't it?

"Apparently, the government knows you are here," said Hakkai. "I'm afraid the partly finished forms were, somehow, sent."

Hakkai allowed himself the feelings of regret and embarrassment as he laid his cards on the table, as it were. If only he'd been in control of himself, none of this mess would have landed in their laps. He wondered if his claws had made Sanzo bleed, then shook his head to try and clear the thought away, even as his eyes wandered over Sanzo's throat, searching for the telltale creeping pink of blood filtering through gauze.

"So?" said Sanzo. "Thought you wanted them to know we're here and that you're being a good little citizen."

Sanzo's eyes were cold and sharp on him. They glittered like an insect's. Sanzo didn't blink for what were surely some of the longest seconds in Hakkai's life. Hakkai shivered and averted his eyes.  It was all too clear that Sanzo hated him. Hakkai was miserable and lost what little courage to speak he'd had.

After a few painfully quiet seconds, Gojyo bumped his leg against Hakkai's and took over.

"Know any reason they'd want to quarantine you?" said Gojyo. "Because that's what we found out. Thanks to you, we're all stuck here."

"Me?" said Sanzo. "You're obviously a moron. I saw the decontamination system at the landing pad, and the _Maten_ isn't without its own bio-filters."

Gojyo leaned back in his seat and crossed his arms.

"Only thing that's changed around here is you," said Gojyo. "So yeah, you."

"If I were sick, I'd know," said Sanzo.

But there was doubt on his face, if not in his voice.

"Not if you were just a carrier," said Gojyo. "Or if you were…what's the word I want?"

Gojyo turned to Hakkai. Hakkai steepled his fingers thoughtfully and brought himself to bear on the problem at hand.

"Asymptomatic," said Hakkai.

Gojyo smiled at him and faced Sanzo again.

"Asymptomatic," said Gojyo. "You know, you've got the disease but never seem sick, so you wouldn't even know."

Hakkai got the impression that Sanzo liked the idea of being ignorant even less than the idea that he was carrying something virulent enough to bring down a quarantine on all of them.

"Impossible," said Sanzo.

He turned his attention to Goku, who seemed to be doing his best not to fidget too much in his seat. Hakkai could feel the vibrations through the table—Goku was probably swinging his legs, but at least he was doing it quietly.

Sanzo frowned, hesitated a second longer, then spoke to the air above Hakkai's head, deliberately avoiding eye contact. That was fine with Hakkai.

"Is there any way I can contact my people?" said Sanzo.

"The Interstellar Affairs Bureau probably notified them already," said Gojyo.

Sanzo snorted and turned a scathing look on Gojyo.

"I don't trust your government to tell mine shit," he said. "And they need to know what's happened."

Hakkai blinked. There was always a certain diplomatic dance to these first-contact conversations, and it was wearying, doing it so often. Sanzo's apparent ability to drop the pretense of civility and get to the heart of the matter was refreshing. Still, Hakkai's stomach turned when he thought of that incisiveness being turned on today's debacle, and he could only imagine what sorts of profanity Sanzo might use to describe him and his unforgivable actions.

When Gojyo patted his leg, he had to fight not to jump out of his seat. He caught the look on Gojyo's face out of the corner of his eye and felt a further layer of shame weigh him down. Clearly he'd missed part of the conversation and Gojyo, bless his soul, was doing his best to cover for his lapses in attention.

"Isn't that right?" said Gojyo. "We can rig something up for outside communications, even if it's only good for one call before it gets blocked."

Hakkai's mouth ran on autopilot as his stomach churned.

"It would have to be a compressed message," said Hakkai. "There’s no feasible way to have a live call going through, but we might to be able to piggyback our message onto another signal, if we are careful."

"How long would it take to prepare for the broadcast?" said Sanzo.

There was something suspiciously like hope in his eyes, and Hakkai's stomach did somersaults at the sight. It was the only emotion Sanzo had shown that wasn't negative so far. It seemed like a very good sign, and Hakkai desperately wanted to sustain it, to build upon it if at all possible.

"Might be able to get it together for tomorrow morning," said Gojyo. "But we'll want to wait a day or two. I don't know what we're up against, and I want to take my time and make sure your message gets through, 'cause I can guarantee we're only going to get one shot at this."

Sanzo's mouth turned down. Hakkai could actually see him tamping down his disappointment and anger.

"It will have to do," said Sanzo. "Since there's apparently no other choice."

He fixed his attention on Goku.

"You're going with Gojyo," he said. "Gojyo is going to set you up, and you're going to make and compress our message, while Gojyo works. Got it?"

"Yeah," said Goku. "Want to say anything besides the usual?"

The usual? Hakkai wondered what, exactly, the usual was. It said a lot—and none of it good—that the two of them had some sort of protocol for these sorts of situations.

"No," said Sanzo.

And then he turned to Hakkai.

"You are coming with me," he said, pointing a long finger. "And we will go to my ship and we will bring back supplies for the interim."

"But Sanzo!" said Goku. "You're hurt! You shouldn't be going anywhere!"

He clung to Sanzo's arm, dragging him down by the sleeve.

"I'm sure we could find suitable substitutes for whatever you may need," said Hakkai.

Sanzo looked down his nose at Hakkai, and did the same to Goku, except in that case his regard was laced with a sort of fondness beneath all the irritation. He pried Goku off his sleeve and turned back to Hakkai.

"There's no way you can provide for my needs," he said flatly.

Hakkai couldn't decide if this was inspired cruelness or not. The implication that Sanzo wouldn't allow Hakkai to accommodate the visitors, even if he could, stung. He wondered if Sanzo might be using this as an opportunity to get him alone so that he could lambaste him in a more private setting. If that were the case, there were plenty of other places they two could go. Had Sanzo forgotten that they were under quarantine and that any move toward the ship might be taken as an attempt to escape?

"We should at least notify the government," said Hakkai. "Otherwise, they may well shoot us to prevent our breaching the quarantine terms."

After a few silent moments wherein Hakkai could divine nothing of Sanzo's true intent, no matter how he tried, Sanzo capitulated.

"Make it quick," said Sanzo.

"Hey!" said Gojyo. "Where do you get off, ordering everyone around like that?"

He leaned forward, aggressive and reaching for Sanzo. Hakkai held him back. Gojyo turned his head and his disbelief was all too plain on his face.

"Hakkai?" said Gojyo.

"It's all right," said Hakkai. "You know very well I'm useless when it comes to the practical side of electronics. I'd be much more help retrieving supplies."

"But!" said Gojyo. "You can't just!"

The look he gave Hakkai suggested it was crazy to go off, alone, with a strange man who may or may not be armed and whom he had recently tried to—Hakkai cut himself off. That was more than enough of that, thank you very much. If Gojyo were truly worried for _his_ welfare, he'd say so, no matter who was sitting across from the table.

"I don't have all day," said Sanzo. "So if you're done mothering him…"

No, it was much more likely Gojyo didn't like Sanzo's attitude: smug, arrogant, and taking charge of the situation.

Hakkai couldn't say he cared for it much himself.

"You're lucky Goku didn't break your neck," said Sanzo. "Either that or he didn't think you were really a threat to me."

They'd been walking quietly down the drive long enough for the sun to warm them, but not long enough for it to become oppressively hot. Hakkai had been enjoying the relative quiet and the illusion of normalcy it provided, but Sanzo seemed determined to destroy that illusion. Still, if Hakkai didn't respond to Sanzo, Sanzo might keep trying to talk with him.

"I beg your pardon?" said Hakkai.

He risked looking at him through his peripheral vision. Sanzo's shoulders sagged in a bit as he sighed, but then he seemed to notice Hakkai watching him and he straightened out again, like he had an iron spine.

"He's designed to protect me," said Sanzo. "He's killed people for less than what you've done."

Sanzo's hand rose to the gauze at his neck, touched briefly, and dropped to his sides again. Hakkai remembered Goku's hands digging into his shoulders and shivered.

  
They walked in silence for a few more minutes, scaling the near side of the rise between the house and the landing pad. Hakkai looked to his right, away from Sanzo. He winced at the scorched mark among all the rolling red. He probably wouldn't be able to re-cultivate the field until next provided this quarantine trouble were to be cleared up in a timely fashion, and there was absolutely no guarantee of that. Hakkai went back to watching the ground under his feet.

"How old is Goku, really?" said Hakkai.

He hadn't exactly planned to say this, but he couldn't think of any other conversation that Sanzo wouldn't push aside as being too trivial for discussion. Even so, Sanzo didn't say anything, though his walking lost its rhythm for a crucial step or two. He recovered his stride without comment.

"I'm sorry to be rude," said Hakkai. "But if you don't mind, I would like to know more about you and your people. We are, after all, literally going to be strangers under the same roof."

He looked over at Sanzo, whose gaze was steadfastly fixed on the landscape ahead of them. Hakkai tried his best not to let his focus wander below Sanzo's neck; he was all too aware of how very form-fitting Sanzo's flight suit was. It couldn't have been comfortable to wear under the influence of planetary gravity, not when it hugged his limbs so and clung to the planes of his body all the way from the tops of his shoulders, down his spine to the slight, comparative softness of his—Hakkai wondered if one of the things they were going to fetch was more suitable clothing. He also wondered when it had gotten so hot out. He glanced upward to the blazing eye of the sun. Returning his line of sight to the road, Hakkai blinked away myriad, dancing sun-spots.

"Why should I talk to you?" said Sanzo. "I don't care about being _comfortable_ under these circumstances. I'd be leaving tomorrow if it weren't for the damn quarantine."

He coughed, once, and Hakkai's heart leapt into his throat for the brief seconds it took him to reason that the breeze that swept over them also kicked road dust into the air they were both breathing. The cough was just a cough. It had to be.

"Sometimes it is easier to speak to someone you don't know than a friend," said Hakkai. "If it makes you feel any better, I doubt we'll ever meet again, once you leave."

The pit of Hakkai's stomach lurched at that thought, but he knew it was completely irrational and so he did his best to ignore it.

"There's really not much to tell," said Sanzo. "But if you're going to keep bothering me about it…"

Sanzo's voice made it sound like nothing, but Hakkai noticed how his mouth pinched and the shaking of his hand when he raised it to sweep the hair out of his eyes. Hakkai stayed quiet and waited.

"Fine," said Sanzo. "Here's a brief history lesson for you. Five hundred years ago, my planet was at war. Goku was designed to protect one of my Sanzo predecessors. That Sanzo died, Goku went nuts. He was put into cold storage, and when the war ended not long after, they left him there to rot."

"But you found him," said Hakkai.

Sanzo frowned.

"He wouldn't shut up," said Sanzo. "His stupid mumbling was in my head all the time. I tracked him down so I could shut him up."

"I see," said Hakkai, though he didn't. "He owes you a great deal."

Sanzo looked very uncomfortable at that. They both concentrated on the road as the hill began to flatten out with the rest of the land. Sanzo kicked a rock, hard, and it shot off into the grass at the side of the road.

"Stupid kid should have stayed home," said Sanzo. "I've told him a hundred times that I don't need his help."

Sanzo didn't look inclined to share any more information than he already had, and so Hakkai didn't say anything until they arrived at the Maten.

"My," said Hakkai. "It is quite…"

It was shiny and gold, mirror-bright and altogether eye-dazzling, even more so than he'd previously thought.

Sanzo snorted.

"I know," he said.

Hakkai watched as one of the hull panels transformed itself into a disc and lowered to the ground. Sanzo stepped on it roughly and waited with evident impatience as Hakkai put first one foot then the other onto it, testing it under his weight before committing fully. He paled as the plate gave a lurch beneath their feet and started rising up again. Hakkai looked at Sanzo with some trepidation and found a hint of a smile on Sanzo's face.

"What did you expect?" said Sanzo. "It's very old, but it's safe enough."

Hakkai tried very hard not to think about the relative age and infirmity of the ship. It was not going to collapse underneath them and anyway, even if it did, it was much more likely that he'd break a leg or two, at this distance from the ground. He could deal with a broken leg, had dealt with worse and was still alive to tell the tale.

"Are you afraid of heights?" said Sanzo.

"Before today, I would have said no," said Hakkai.

There was something unsettling about this mode of travel. He was relieved when Sanzo led the way into the ship. As soon as they stepped in, the hull closed behind them, and lights flickered on along the length of the space. Hakkai's stomach churned unpleasantly. There was no denying it; they were standing at a ninety degree angle to where they had just been standing: they now stood perpendicular to the planet's surface. Hakkai swallowed hard.

"Artificial gravity?" said Hakkai.

Hakkai felt a bit faint, and he looked, in vain, for somewhere to sit that wasn't the floor.

"Of course," said Sanzo. "Hell if I'm going to live in a ship for months on end, climbing up and down ladders to get to the different sections of the ship."

Sanzo glanced at him. His eyes narrowed.

"I'd appreciate you not puking on the carpet," said Sanzo. "Bath's the second door on the left."

He jerked a thumb in that selfsame direction, and Hakkai tried to ignore the inescapable logic that going left from where he was actually meant moving down toward the ground outside. He mumbled his thanks and made a beeline for the door.

Once inside the little room, Hakkai locked the door and twisted the lone tap he found, splashing water over his face. The water was a little tinny-smelling, but not bad, considering it was probably recycled and was definitely extraterrestrial. Hakkai could tell the mineral content was very different just by smelling it, and tasting it when he licked his lips confirmed that. He skimmed the water off his face as best as he could, and he blotted the rest with the cuff of one sleeve.

He walked out more composed than before, but still keenly aware of the havoc Sanzo's ship wreaked on the natural order of things. His eyes told him one thing—that he and Sanzo walked through the ship upright—and the rest of his senses jangled with the knowledge that what he saw was completely wrong.

Sanzo looked at him and grunted.

"It takes some getting used to," said Sanzo. "Don't think about it too much. This way."

It wasn't much, as far as pleasantries went, but Hakkai was rather busy trying to quell his dis-ease. He nodded and followed Sanzo, first to the cockpit (he shied away from the idea that they were walking _up_ ) where he stood, swallowing his gorge while Sanzo did something that resulted in the ship's computers cycling into sleep mode, evidenced by the dimming of the interior lights and the control display screens going dark.

Sanzo popped open a panel underneath the banks of controls and removed a handful of, ostensibly, data storage modules, though they were shaped and colored like nothing Hakkai had ever encountered. Not, he conceded, that he had much experience with technologies other than his own. That was more Gojyo's area of expertise. Sanzo stuck the modules in a little case and handed it over to Hakkai.

"Don't drop these," he said.

The case was heavier than it looked.

"I thought we were getting supplies," said Hakkai

"Some things are more important than that," said Sanzo.

He turned away and started back down the hallway again. Hakkai followed him. Even the few minutes it had taken for them to visit the cockpit had done wonders for his adjustment to the artificial gravity, and he now felt he could look around. The cockpit took up the entire nose of the ship; Hakkai wondered if the needle he'd seen before wasn't some sort of communications array. Off the cockpit was a long corridor, presumably running the length of the ship, leading to the cockpit behind and terminating at some as-yet unseen place before him. Lights, now dimmer than when they had entered the ship, ran along the edges of the floor and off into a blackness which he could not see beyond.

Doors at regular intervals broke up the long stretch of corridor, and Hakkai recognized the nearest, on the left, to be where they had entered the ship.  Then there was another door beyond that, which meant the third door down would be the necessary where he'd washed his face. A small, thin light panel was stationed over every doorway. Hakkai craned his neck, counting. There were six doors that he could see to the left, and a matching six on the right. Beyond that, it was too dark to see.

Hakkai was so busy taking in his surroundings that he didn't see Sanzo had stopped moving. He bumped into his back. Sanzo's body was warm, but it was as unforgiving as a rock. Hakkai immediately backed away. Sanzo turned around, and a look Hakkai couldn't read passed over his face.

"You should stay here," said Sanzo.

"I'm sorry," said Hakkai. "I'll be more careful. It won't happen again."

He paused and composed himself.

"Your ship is fascinating," said Hakkai. "Please, if you wouldn't mind, I would like to see the rest of it."

Even to his own ears this sounded weak. Sanzo exhaled sharply.

"All right," said Sanzo. "But you'll stay in the corridor."

"Fine," said Hakkai.

The parts of him that had made contact with Sanzo were still warm. He walked along in a bit of a daze, but this time managed to stop when Sanzo did, in front of the fourth door on the right.

"Stay here," said Sanzo.

He opened the door without checking to see that Hakkai was doing as he said, as if he knew Hakkai wasn't going anywhere. The door shut behind him quickly, leaving Hakkai alone.

Hakkai looked around a little more. The inside of the ship was as ordinary and boring as the outside had been gaudy. He sighed and set down the case he'd been carrying. The ship wasn't _gaudy_ , precisely. Eye-catching, yes, but not actually gaudy. The golden shade of it had been…warm. Hakkai hadn't seen much real gold in his life, but it too had had a certain buttery warmth to it. That effect was somehow magnified in the ship's exterior; if real gold were a candle, then the ship was the living heart of a yellow star. It was surprising that the inside of the ship was so plain. The outside spoke of wealth, of decadence, but the inside was as straightforward as any cargo ship he'd ever seen. Even Gojyo's ship had more in the way of aesthetics and comforts. Hakkai sighed again. He wished he were back home with Gojyo.

The door Sanzo had gone through swung open again.

"Catch," came Sanzo's voice.

A large, lumpy-looking bag came flying at him. When it hit him square in the ribs, Hakkai staggered back a step, but he caught it all the same. Hakkai took a second look at the open door and he dropped the bag.

From what Hakkai could tell, Sanzo was on the ceiling. Hakkai had seen him walk in, hadn't he? When he tried to figure out, logically, how Sanzo had ended up on the ceiling, his earlier nausea returned in full force. It got worse as he watched Sanzo exit into the corridor.

Sanzo grabbed a small bar above his head (at floor level, from Hakkai's perspective) and swung himself around the frame of the door, and down onto the floor feet first, balancing with his hands, his movements made with all the skill of a gymnast executing a handspring. Which, Hakkai realized, was almost exactly what Sanzo had done.

"I thought you'd be less likely to be sick all over the ship if I left you out here," said Sanzo. "It seems I was right."

"Artificial gravity?" said Hakkai. "But…"

He had never thought such a thing was possible. Artificial gravity, yes, but not the way Sanzo's ship employed it.

"I already told you," said Sanzo. "The _Maten_ is special. Very old and very…unique."

"All the rooms are like that?" said Hakkai.

He felt himself turn a little more green at the thought.

"On this side of the ship, yes," said Sanzo. "The ones on the other side, like the bath, no."

Sanzo pointed at the door he'd just exited, and described a long arc with one finger, going over their heads and almost all the way over to the other wall.

"The floor of that room runs all the way over to there," he said. "The ceiling of the bath is the other side of the room, effectively."

Hakkai blanched at the idea of living aboard a ship where, half the time, he'd be upside down.

"I told you not to think about it," said Sanzo.

Hakkai wilted a little at the scorn in Sanzo's voice. He took a deep breath and tried to ignore every instinct his body possessed about what was and was not the proper way to be moving about on a ship.

"I'll try," said Hakkai. "I'm sorry."

He picked up the bag in one hand and caught the case in the other.

"Please, continue," said Hakkai.

Unspoken was the thought that the sooner they finished gathering the supplies, the sooner they could leave, and Hakkai could be safely under the force of real, natural gravity again.

"It will only take a few more minutes," said Sanzo.

Hakkai wondered, with a streak of black humor, if Sanzo's people were capable of reading minds.

He followed Sanzo past the doorways he'd counted, and learned that there were three more on each side before the corridor came abruptly to an end. Sanzo opened the next-to-last door on the right. He hesitated, still gripping the handle.

"This one's mine," said Sanzo. "You can enter if you want, but don't you dare touch anything."

Hakkai didn't reply immediately, and Sanzo hopped in, frown on his face deeper than ever. The door started to close behind him. If Hakkai didn't go, this strange visitor might never make another friendly overture. And, above almost all else, Hakkai valued friendship. It would be worth the crippling vertigo and disorientation to be able to see inside the private world of Sanzo—or so he hoped.

  
"Wait," said Hakkai. "Hold the door please."

There was a flash of Sanzo's hair and door creaked open again. Hakkai swallowed hard, set down the luggage he carried, and stepped through the opening. To his surprise, the floor was quite far down, and he stumbled backward. Sanzo grabbed him by the shirt and pulled hard before he fell out into the corridor. The door closed, and Sanzo let him go.

"Idiot," said Sanzo. "Are you _trying_ to hurt yourself?

He immediately made for a rather utilitarian-looking armoire. It was bolted in place—was, perhaps, actually built into the wall rather than added later—and it was at that point that Hakkai realized that the floor curved in the opposite direction than the curve of the ship, which the long, right-hand rooms followed. His heart gave a strange little fillip.

"We're upside down," said Hakkai.

He sat abruptly on the floor. Ceiling. Whichever. At least it was solid underneath him.

"Actually," said Sanzo. "We're moving parallel to the surface of your planet."

"How wonderful," said Hakkai.

To distract himself, he tried to find something interesting to look at in Sanzo's cabin. There was the armoire, a bunk, and a desk, all similarly bolted in place. Hakkai wondered if the people who had built the ship had been worried about the artificial gravity going off when they'd fastened the furnishings to the walls. The thought made him queasier, even though he knew they were docked and would remain that way for the foreseeable future.

He let his eyes wander. There wasn't much else to see. Sanzo had no knick-knacks, no pictures. Not so much as a house plant. Even the desk was curiously devoid of anything desk-like: no papers or pens or data pads were on it, though Hakkai supposed all those things could be locked into either of the drawers that flanked the desk's top. He hated to think of the mess a pen hitting the wall would make, if it were to impact at seven times the force of gravity (or however many Gs this particular ship hit whilst breaking orbit.)

Still, Sanzo's cabin was quite large, for a cabin on a spaceship. It made a strange sort of sense to Hakkai, though his senses were still reeling from the abrupt change, that the gravity in this room was the way it was. The 'floor' upon which he sat actually was the longest, largest space available in such an oddly-shaped room. Hakkai glanced down— _up_ he sternly told himself—to the 'ceiling' and was interested to see that it was painted, or possibly enameled, to resemble sky. Hakkai didn't know if it was a fanciful depiction or not, but the brightly orange clouds were a perfect foil for the vivid blue background.

"Did you do this yourself?" said Hakkai. "Paint the ceiling, I mean."

Sanzo turned away from the cupboard. He laid out some clothes on the bed and stuffed some others into another bag. Sanzo's eyes slid upward.

"A folly of the previous Sanzo," he said. "I've been meaning to strip it down and put something more suitable up."

From the way Sanzo's tone had softened, however, Hakkai deduced that Sanzo intended no such thing. He wanted to ask if Sanzo had known this other Sanzo, but Hakkai was distracted from such thoughts when Sanzo's hand went to the fastenings of his flight suit.

Sanzo stripped down, matter-of-fact, as if he undressed in front of total strangers every day. Perhaps he did. Hakkai didn't know much about Sanzo's life, but he knew that, historically, aristocrats and the upper echelons of societies rarely had truly private lives; Sanzo might have servants on his home planet who helped him dress every day. Perhaps it was one of Goku's unofficial duties?

Still, Sanzo seemed capable enough. He slipped into clothing Hakkai recognized as a shirt and pants, though the styles and cuts were distinctly foreign. Or perhaps this shirt was an undershirt. Whatever it was, it was tight, black, and long-sleeved, though the neckline was low and wide, exposing a good stretch of Sanzo's collarbones and shoulders. Some sort of tattoo or marking seemed to be on his shoulders, though Hakkai couldn't see much of it from this angle. The shirt also showed off his neck, looking all the more fragile, bandages and all, without the solidness of the flight suit framing it.

Hakkai realized he was staring.

"What?" said Sanzo.

"I—" said Hakkai.

He scrambled for some sort of excuse.

"You might get a sunburn," said Hakkai. "I hope you don't. I can offer you some sunscreen, once we're back at the house."

"I have an over-shirt," said Sanzo. "It's a pain in the ass to put it on aboard ship, though. I planned on using once we're on the ground again."

"Ah," said Hakkai. "I see."

After a minute or two of uncomfortable silence, during which Hakkai thoughtfully memorized each of the puffy clouds on the ceiling, Sanzo spoke.

"All your people look like you?" he said.

"What do you mean?" said Hakkai.

Sanzo gestured to his own ears and hands, then turned his attention to his packing. Hakkai looked at himself critically for, perhaps, the first time since Gojyo's crash-landing. He supposed, in comparison to Sanzo, he must look very strange with his elongated teeth, his pointed ears, and the strong, sharp claws he had instead of the soft little nails that Sanzo sported. And that was discounting the clan markings that trailed over most of Hakkai's body. Sanzo seemed very soft indeed, without the flight suit, like a hermit crab without its protective shell, and the only markings he had were the red dot on his forehead and that scrolling line of something—perhaps a kind of writing with which Hakkai was unfamiliar—across his shoulders, dipping beneath the low neck-line of the shirt.

"Mmm," said Hakkai. "More or less. If you are discomfited, I can use a holo-emitter to change my appearance."

Hakkai often felt diminished when he used this particular technology, but he always carried it with him, just in case. One never knew just how aliens might react to his people. To _him_. Hakkai patted the pocket of his shirt, feeling the slight lumps the emitters made. It amazed him to no end how such complex pieces of work could be disguised as jewelry. He worked them out of the pocket. Slipping the three silver cuffs over his ear, Hakkai winced. They dug into his skin with tiny teeth.

He must have made some sort of sound because Sanzo, now seated at the desk, looked up at him.

"You're bleeding," said Sanzo.

"Am I?" said Hakkai.

It had been too long since he'd last used the emitters, then, if the skin of his ear was now so tender that it broke and bled at this least of provocations. Perhaps he ought to wear the emitters more regularly to prevent further discomfort. A brief hum alerted him that the technology was now in working order.

"Well?" said Hakkai. "Does this please you better?"

He held out his arms and turned around, once, so that Sanzo might inspect his appearance.

From the way Sanzo stared at him, he probably hadn't expected so complete a transformation, but complete it was. Hakkai had chosen a very innocuous form: male, neither too short nor too tall; his own ordinary brown hair tamed and cut short; lightly tanned skin free of any marks or blemishes; his own green eyes; his ears no longer pointed, but round; his teeth squared and dull; the same demurely rounded nails that Gojyo had. (He'd used Gojyo as his model while designing this second skin of light and air because, at the time, there had been no one else, though Gojyo had laughed and said it was flattering all the same.) The way his holographic projection enveloped and rode on his skin had never sat well with him, for all that it was as easy to wear as a suit of clothing one particularly disliked.

At last, Sanzo had looked his fill. He shook his head.

"You look ridiculous," he said. "Turn it off."

Hakkai smiled, genuinely pleased. He would have continued the charade, of course, had Sanzo asked, but he was glad that it was unnecessary. He switched off the mechanism and slipped the cuffs off his ear. His fingers came away with a rusty smear of half-dried blood, and he wiped it off as best he could onto the leg of his pants before dropping the emitters into the breast pocket of his shirt and buttoning it shut.

"You haven't been given many choices today," said Hakkai. "I thought I could offer you at least one."

"You're wrong," said Sanzo.

Sanzo's eyes met Hakkai's, as if he wanted there to be no more misunderstandings between them. Hakkai felt encouraged by this.

"It was my choice to land here," said Sanzo. "It was my choice to carry a weapon, and it was my choice to draw it when I thought…"

He stopped then, and Hakkai was left to wonder just what, exactly, Sanzo had been thinking so shortly before everything had gone so very, very wrong.

"It was my decision to prevent you from harming my friend," said Hakkai. "Though I'm ashamed to have taken it so far."

He knew it was a rather awkward and weak turn of phrase, but he couldn't think of another way to apologize without apologizing. Because, as it turned out, he wasn't sorry at all for protecting Gojyo and defending his home, though he couldn't help sneaking another guilty glance at Sanzo's neck. Sanzo caught him looking, and Hakkai felt fresh shame.

"You did what you felt was necessary," said Sanzo. "I'd be a fool to blame you for that."

He touched the bandages around his neck gingerly. Hakkai imagined—or tried to imagine—how much his injuries might hurt.

"That's one thing I won't forget," Sanzo said. "You've got a hell of a grip."

Hakkai blinked twice before answering. It seemed the conversation was over. No one had apologized at all, in the end. Maybe they never would.

"I'm a farmer," said Hakkai. "Physical strength rather comes with the territory."

"Then you won't mind carrying the bags," said Sanzo.

Hakkai could tell it was meant as a joke by the infinitesimal lightening of Sanzo's frown. Sanzo zipped his bag shut, and Hakkai knew it was time to go.

"Once we are off your ship, I'd be happy to," he said. "However, I admit to being uncertain as to how to exit your cabin. I fear I'm not as flexible as you yourself have evidenced."

"First things first," said Sanzo.

He opened the door to the corridor and tossed the bag out.

"As long as your feet hit the floor in the corridor, you'll be fine," said Sanzo.

He then did that interesting, handspring-like move and he was standing, upside down from Hakkai's perspective, outside the cabin. Hakkai felt dizzy just watching him.

"A little instruction would be very helpful," said Hakkai.

The last thing he wanted was to somehow be caught between two conflicting gravities.

"There's a rod in the doorframe," said Sanzo. "By your feet."

"Your side of the door or mine?" said Hakkai.

"Either is fine," said Sanzo. "Less chance of you swinging back into the cabin if you use the one on your side."

Hakkai knelt and gripped the bar with his left hand.

"Now," said Sanzo. "Put one leg out the door, the same as the hand that's holding on."

Hakkai fussed a minute, trying to figure out how to do it without losing his hold on the doorframe. In the end, he managed it. Suddenly, inexplicably, he felt the gravity on the other side of the door and his foot found the floor.

"Good," said Sanzo. "Do the other foot, then let go of the grip. Mind your head."

Hakkai slid out into the corridor without any further fuss, though the door frame had come perilously close to his forehead, and he ended up sitting  and not standing.

"My," said Hakkai. "That was easier than it looked."

Sanzo grunted.

"Gives me a head rush if I do it that way," said Sanzo.

"Aha," said Hakkai. "So you don't do flips because it looks impressive, after all."

He smiled up at Sanzo, who frowned back at him.

"I don't do anything because it's impressive," he said.

But again, there was that lightening of his features that indicated he found it funny. Sanzo nudged him out of the way and closed the door to his cabin.

Hakkai waited until he was sure of his feet again before standing. Then, as he had promised, he shouldered the two bags and took the case in one hand.

"You—"said Sanzo.

"I said I would and so I shall," said Hakkai.

Without waiting for Sanzo, he made his way back up the corridor. The door to the outside was already open, and he stepped onto the hovering plate with minimal disorientation. Sanzo was only a step or two behind him, and as soon as Sanzo was on it, the plate descended. They reached the ground quickly, far faster, it seemed, than they had ascended.  They stepped onto the ground and Hakkai was shaky with relief.

Sanzo gave the ship a single pat. He then took the heavy case from Hakkai. They watched, silent, as the plate rose and sealed itself in place again. The ship's golden glow faded away to almost nothing. It looked almost ordinary now, though Hakkai could almost feel the potential of it, crouched on the landing pad like a sleeping animal.

"There," said Sanzo. "The _Maten_ won't open up for anyone but me now."

Hakkai looked at the case Sanzo held, and Sanzo noticed him looking. In this instance, Hakkai didn't mind being caught staring.

"I don't care what your government thinks I'm spreading around," he said. "Nobody touches the _Maten_ but me. If anything happened to it…"

He sighed, and Hakkai saw that Sanzo was, perhaps, older than he'd first appeared. Sanzo looked old and tired when he worried about the ship like this. Hakkai wondered what the _Maten_ had in store to make it so important to this man who gave the impression of not caring about anything.

"They've sealed us in," said Hakkai. "And even if they broke those containment seals, I'd like to think we are not undefended."

Sanzo raised an eyebrow at him.

"I believe Gojyo should have most of it set up by now," said Hakkai. "You'll see when we get back. Would you like your bag?"

"My bag?" said Sanzo.

"The sun is very strong at this time of year," said Hakkai. "You mentioned covering up in deference to it."

"So I did," said Sanzo.

And so Sanzo opened his bag while Hakkai still held it, and Hakkai was hard-pressed to keep himself feeling calm while Sanzo was so close at hand. It was ridiculous how giddy he felt around Sanzo. Before Hakkai could gather his thoughts or, worse, say something incriminating, Sanzo zipped the bag closed.

Sanzo pulled on the over-shirt, a light, loose, billowing white tunic that wrapped around him at least twice and belted high on his waist and draped to the knee and had long, wide, equally billow-y sleeves. Hakkai goggled a bit. It seemed so impractical, so…frilly for the sort of person he took Sanzo as.

"It comes with the title," said Sanzo. "Ridiculous, isn't it?"

"I intend no slight against you or your society," said Hakkai.

"It's one of the first things I intend to get changed once I return home," said Sanzo. "You have no idea how often other cultures mistake it for a dress."

Hakkai carefully steered himself away from thinking about Sanzo in various stages of undress. He felt his cheeks warm, and he cleared his throat. Polite conversation, he reminded himself. Polite conversation.

"Are you on a diplomatic mission?" said Hakkai. "Or are you out making first contact?"

"More or less," said Sanzo.

Sanzo closed down then, and wouldn’t speak any more. Hakkai was alone with his thoughts, though he could have reached out and touched Sanzo.

It was a long, quiet walk back to the house.


	5. Chapter 5

As soon as they were within sight of the house again, Goku pelted down the path and flung himself at Sanzo. Hakkai caught a flash of discomfort on Sanzo's face at impact. He covered for it well, though.

"You're back!" Goku said. "I missed you, Sanzo!"

Goku made an unpleasant face at Hakkai, and Sanzo, without even seeing it, cuffed Goku.

"Stop that," Sanzo said.

"But he—" said Goku.

Sanzo cuffed him again.

"Hold on to nothing," said Sanzo.

Goku frowned, and turned away from Hakkai.

"I know, I know," he said.

It was clear, however, that Goku kept his hurt and mistrust close and in the forefront of his mind. Hakkai couldn't blame him for that, though he did wonder whether an apology would make things better or worse. Hakkai felt like an intruder here. Goku was so solicitous of Sanzo, so gentle despite appearances, and Hakkai didn't know whether or not it was because Goku had been designed to protect Sanzo. Hakkai knew what it was like to pour oneself into protecting and then to fail. It was fortunate indeed that Sanzo still lived. Hakkai excused himself, getting a bare nod from Sanzo in the process. Goku didn't even look his way.

He walked quickly back to the house, and Gojyo met him at the front door. Gojyo took their guests' belongings, and grunted at the weight.

"What's in these?" he said. "Rocks?"

"Data crystals," said Hakkai. "Sanzo wisely disabled his ship. I wouldn't doubt the government would not use this opportunity to explore it."

Gojyo nodded, though angry lines etched themselves around his eyes and mouth.

"All in the name of global security," said Gojyo.

"Of course," said Hakkai. "Never mind that they have systems sophisticated enough to determine everything about a ship while it's still in orbit."

"They would've done the same to mine if it hadn't been in itty bitty pieces by the time it touched the ground," said Gojyo. "Xenophobic bastards."

 

Hakkai looked behind him, checking to see whether their guests were near. There was nothing out of the ordinary, just the same view of the fields and the path to the house as always. The two of them brought the luggage to the spare bedroom, then returned to the kitchen to wait.

"Tell me," said Hakkai. "What do you think of the visitors?"

Gojyo raised an eyebrow at Hakkai.

"There any reason for this sudden change in topic?" said Gojyo. "Like maybe you're planning something?"

And really, Gojyo knew Hakkai too well, too well by far. Hakkai sighed. It seemed feeling Gojyo out was going to be a far more honest process than he'd planned. Not that he was planning on being underhanded, mind, but he had counted on utilizing a certain subtlety.

"You must admit," said Hakkai. "Sanzo does have a certain appeal."

Gojyo huffed and blew his hair out of his face.

"The guy's a prick," said Gojyo. "Easy on the eyes, but…"

He sighed as he paced, arms crossed. Hakkai didn't rush his thinking.

"What about the kid?" said Gojyo. "You don't think he's…?"

Gojyo made a somewhat obscene gesture with one hand.

"No, I do not," said Hakkai. "I believe Goku loves him, but is not in love with him, if you can see the distinction."

"Whoah," said Gojyo. "Who said anything about love? I'm talking about straight up, old-fashioned lust here."

"My apologies," said Hakkai.

He held out a placating hand, thoughts buzzing all the while. Love? He hadn't meant to imply that he… Hakkai shook his head. Feeling suddenly thirsty, he got himself a glass of water.

"I only wished to illustrate that no one appears to have that sort of a claim on Sanzo," said Hakkai. "A prior, competing interest, if you will."

Gojyo snorted, then, understanding clearly written on his face.

"Not unless he's fucking his ship," said Gojyo.

Hakkai felt the distinct urge to roll his eyes. He took a sip of water instead, and set his glass back on the counter

"Really, Gojyo," said Hakkai. "As I understand it, his culture is rather more religious than ours. It may be that he has taken vows which curtail such activities altogether."

"Maybe," said Gojyo. "But there's always the chance he's not much of a rule-follower."

"He seems rather serious and focused to me," said Hakkai.

Hakkai couldn't help his despondency at the thought.

Gojyo laughed.

"You didn't notice him staring at your ass, then," he said. "Religious cult or not, the man's still a man."

Hakkai felt immediately cheered and absurdly pleased by the idea that Sanzo had been watching him without scorn or criticism. He wondered when this little bit of voyeurism had happened. Gojyo nodded.

"Mmm," said Gojyo. "I thought so. So, you gonna bring him to heel or what?"

Hakkai looked at Gojyo sharply.

"Don't look at me like that," said Gojyo. "I can tell. I know you. You're itching to bring him into the fold."

"He's not going to be here very long," said Hakkai.

"So?" Gojyo shrugged, easy, graceful. "Doesn't mean we can't enjoy his stay."

"Really, Gojyo, you are incorrigible," said Hakkai.

His mouth was horribly dry. He took another sip of water, and another after that.

"And yet, you don't deny it," said Gojyo.

"Tell me," said Hakkai. "What do you think of him? I mean, would you…"

His hands knotted themselves up in anxiety as he waited for Gojyo's reply.

"He doesn't seem to like me much," said Gojyo. "But then, I wouldn't say no if he came asking, and asking doesn't necessarily connect with liking."

Gojyo plopped down in the kitchen chair. Hakkai could just about see his neurons firing as he thought long and hard.

"Your honest opinion, please," said Hakkai.

"If you got him to come to bed with us, I'd be doing it for you," said Gojyo.

Hakkai turned away, offended.

"I wouldn't want you to martyr yourself over this," said Hakkai. "Not on my account."

"Shit," said Gojyo. "I didn't mean it like that."

Gojyo stood again. He came up close behind Hakkai, close enough that Hakkai could feel the warmth his body radiated. Gojyo laid a hand on Hakkai's shoulder. Absentmindedly, Hakkai wondered whether the environmental controls might need adjusting. He breathed a deep breath, then spoke.

"Then how did you mean it?" said Hakkai.

He tried to brace himself for further disappointment.

"I'm interested in you," said Gojyo. "I'm with you and I want to do the things that you want, yeah, but like I said…Sanzo's a hot piece, but I sure as hell wouldn't want to live with him."

"What was all that about doing it for me?" said Hakkai.

Gojyo sighed.

"I know this will sound bad," said Gojyo. "I have a…shall we say, passing interest in the guy. You, on the other hand, seem a little more intent on making this happen. Focused, even."

"You're saying that my interest in him outweighs yours," said Hakkai.

Oh, this wasn't good, wasn't good at all. At the best it was unseemly and embarrassing and, at the worst, Hakkai didn't want Gojyo thinking that this quandary he was in over Sanzo threatened what he and Gojyo had. It didn't. Hakkai didn't want to run off to some distant planet with Sanzo. But while Sanzo was here, on his planet, on his land, in his home. Hakkai sighed.

"Sometimes I don't know, entirely, what I want," said Hakkai.

He half-turned and leaned against Gojyo, their bodies connecting at the hip and through the chest. Hakkai allowed himself a brief moment or two of resting his cheek against Gojyo's strong shoulder before straightening out again.

"You're entitled," said Gojyo. "I may not get it, but I don't have to. That you feel something for him is enough for me."

"I won't get too involved," said Hakkai. "That I can promise."

"Really?" said Gojyo. "All right then."

And Hakkai knew that Gojyo already thought he was in too deep.

Gojyo rubbed his hands together.

"What're we doing about dinner?" said Gojyo.

Hakkai was thankful for the break in the conversation, clumsy and artificial as it was. Gojyo ambled around the kitchen to survey the contents of the pantry, and the front door swung open. Sanzo and Goku came inside, and Hakkai busied himself with looking after the two of them. At this point, Hakkai would take any escape he could, even if that escape sent him straight into the arms—figuratively speaking—of the one person he didn't want to speak to for fear of slipping up and revealing something better left hidden.

Hakkai tried to ignore the sudden case of nerves he developed while talking to Sanzo. Hakkai showed Sanzo and Goku to the extra beds. His nerves got worse when Goku raced back to the kitchen, and Hakkai was left alone with Sanzo. The quality of the silence between them made the back of his neck prickle. He prepared himself for the worst.

"You said you had defenses for when the government comes knocking," said Sanzo.

Hakkai blinked. Again, he was struck by Sanzo's total lack of pretense.

"Indeed I did," said Hakkai.

"Tell me," said Sanzo.

Hakkai sat on the foot of one of the beds.

"First off," said Hakkai. "When I said defenses, I meant defenses. I don't have any significant weapons."

Hakkai smiled and looked down at his hands.

"I rarely need them," he said. "Generally speaking, my own claws suffice."

If Sanzo was rattled by such an admission, he wasn't showing it. His gaze was steady on Hakkai, and Hakkai felt himself relaxing just a hair, despite the sudden upwelling of flesh-memory, of the sensation of blood dripping from his claws.

"So what do you have?" said Sanzo.

"There's Hakuryuu," said Hakkai.

Sanzo raised an eyebrow.

"He can tell us if there are people here who should not be," said Hakkai. "And, if we should ask nicely, he can interfere with the person or persons' ability to communicate."

In fact, Hakuryuu had performed this service before. He didn't like anyone threatening his family, either, or so it seemed to Hakkai. There had been a certain wild glee in Hakuryuu's thoughts on those rare occasions of his intervention.

"Secondly," said Hakkai. "We have perimeter shielding. Once we are officially quarantined, I plan to put our barrier inside theirs."

Sanzo nodded.

"Third, and perhaps most importantly," said Hakkai. "Is that there are caves."

"Caves?" said Sanzo.

"Caves," said Hakkai. "Once upon a time, I imagine there were undergrounds streams and rivers, but the water has long since gone, leaving behind a network of caves and tunnels."

Hakkai smiled again.

"Gojyo and I have worked to…expand that network," he said. "We can get from here to, roughly, three hundred meters from the landing pad, if need be."

Sanzo looked at him sharply.

"And no one knows about these tunnels?" said Sanzo.

Hakkai shrugged, more nonchalant than he actually felt.

"I have no way of knowing," he said. "It seems unlikely. And even if someone did, the access points are all going to be inside our shielding."

"What if someone tries to get in before your shields go up?" said Sanzo.

"There are a few very unpleasant surprises waiting for such an occasion," said Hakkai. "That is, of course, assuming they were to arrived completely unnoticed, which I seriously doubt."

"In any case," said Hakkai. "We can sit tight for quite a while, if need be. Unless you believe there is some reason your government won't be coming for you, in which case it would be best if you were to leave as soon as possible."

Sanzo looked away, briefly.

"No one is going to come for me or for Goku," he said. "Officially speaking, I was never here."

Hakkai blinked, processing this strange confession.

"But the message," said Hakkai. "You were sending a message."

Sanzo snorted.

"It's a progress report," said Sanzo. "About my mission. I'm not out spreading good will through the galaxy. I'm hunting a fugitive."

"Fugitive?" said Hakkai.

"A renegade Sanzo," said Sanzo. "He stole a valuable, dangerous device. I've been hunting him for years, following his trail of screw-ups."

"Forgive me, but I don't think I understand," said Hakkai.

Sanzo was some sort of bounty hunter? It boggled the mind.

"They're not really mistakes on his part," said Sanzo. "The bastard's taunting me."

"Tell me," said Sanzo. "Have you ever had an inexplicable disaster happen on your planet?"

"Disaster?" said Hakkai.

"Famine, floods, earthquakes, plagues," said Sanzo. "Disasters."

The pit of Hakkai's stomach dropped.

"Plague?" said Hakkai. "There was a plague here, once."

Sanzo nodded.

"I thought as much," he said. "When was it?"

"It started seven years ago," said Hakkai. "I was, oh, seventeen at the time."

Hakkai thought a little more.

It had taken Hakkai's people five years to find a cure for the disease, and meanwhile chaos had wracked the planet. Hundreds of thousands of people had died. Entire cities had been burned to the ground. The government had held on to power with claws and teeth and the heavy hand of martial law. And yet, Hakkai's thoughts were drawn to Kanaan, dear Kanaan who had been killed by those hardest hit by the sickness—the poor and the desperate who had no protection against the plague save folk remedies and sacrifices to half-forgotten gods. Hyakugen Maoh's altar had fed well in those dark years. The cure had been announced mere weeks after her death, and Gojyo had crash-landed not long after that.

Hakkai wondered if it was coincidence, those connections that existed between them all.

"That was your people?" said Hakkai. "No wonder we've been quarantined."

"You see why I have to find this man," said Sanzo.

"The sickness?" said Hakkai.

Sanzo waved a hand, as if the illness that had devastated their planet was nothing more bothersome than a fly.

"Incidental," he said. "A side-effect of the theft the Sanzo perpetrated. The device he has is so much more powerful than that."

Sanzo's shoulders straightened.

"As I said, he's taunting me," said Sanzo. "He knows I'm coming after him and he thinks it's funny."

Hakkai didn't ask what, exactly, had been stolen, and Sanzo was not the sort of person who would volunteer anything. It didn't matter what it was, anyway. What mattered was that this menace be stopped and damage control be done.

"But why you?" said Hakkai. "Why, out of all your people, were you sent to stop this renegade?"

Wrinkles formed between Sanzo's eyebrows.

"I'm the Merciful Goddess's favorite nephew," said Sanzo. "She thought it would be fun for me."

Hakkai choked on his tea. He wasn't sure whether or not to believe Sanzo. His instincts told him that this was the truth, and yet…

"Excuse me?" he said.

"She's the leader of the Merciful Goddess cult," said Sanzo. "I'm her nephew, which is, incidentally, why people tend to think kidnapping me is a good idea. But the Merciful Goddess is anything but."

Oh. Oh. Oh dear.

"Her diplomatic maneuvers are a stalling tactic," said Sanzo. "She won't send anyone here to get me—or any of you—out of here. If we can't make it on our own, we die at the hands of your people."

The idea was unfathomable to Hakkai.

"But why?" said Hakkai. "You're her blood."

"She's a great believer in self-sufficiency," said Sanzo, dryly.

Sanzo was being unusually forthcoming. Hakkai did a bit of a turn-around in his thinking, and the pieces started to fall into place.

"You want us to go with you," said Hakkai.

Sanzo glanced away.

"It's not like you'll be able to come back here," said Sanzo. "My arrival ensured that you'll never be free from your government's watchful eye."

Was it Hakkai's imagination or did Sanzo actually sound a trifle regretful about that?

"The quarantine is an excuse," said Sanzo. "There is no danger."

Hakkai realized then the scope of the problem.

"The only danger is to us," he said. "They're going to kill us. All of us."

They would kill Sanzo as retribution for the illness, and they would kill Hakkai and Gojyo and anyone else who might be considered a witness. That certainly put things into perspective.

"And how do you propose we get off-planet?" said Hakkai. "Doubtless you remember that our ships are effectively impounded."

Sanzo smiled. It was predatory.

"Leave that to me," he said. "If we can get to the _Maten_ , I can get us out."

"Fine," said Hakkai, though nothing about the situation was fine.

"I'll ask Gojyo to make the necessary preparations," he said.

And that was that. Hakkai left Sanzo to his business.

 

Hakkai hardly slept at all that night. His head was too full of thoughts and questions and plans and doubts. He knew his restlessness kept Gojyo awake, and that added some guilt to the mix. Gojyo, an inveterate snorer, was eerily quiet, and not once did Hakkai found himself rolling onto one of Gojyo's arms or legs. On all but the hottest nights, they slept closely, sometimes arm in arm, but this night the space between them—half a foot at least—felt enormous.

The soft glow of the clock informed Hakkai that it was half past three when Gojyo finally spoke.

"Hey, Hakkai," said Gojyo. "You awake?"

"I'm sorry," said Hakkai. "I'll go sleep on the couch."

But before he had even sat up, Gojyo had wrapped one hand around his arm. He was so warm. Hakkai drank it in.

"Don't go," said Gojyo. "Just…talk to me."

"All right," said Hakkai.

He settled back into the bed and Gojyo bridged the distance between them, hooking a leg over Hakkai's and extending his arm across Hakkai's chest.

Hakkai explained, in as few words as possible, the current situation.

"Shit," said Gojyo. "I knew something was going on at dinner time. Why didn't you say anything to me?"

It had been a miserable meal, awkward in the extreme, and everything Hakkai had tried to eat had turned to ashes on his palate.

"I didn't want to worry you," said Hakkai. "I didn't know what to say."

It sounded pathetic even to his own ears.

"Oh, I don't know," said Gojyo. "How about 'we've got to skedaddle before our own government kills us?' Or 'Sanzo's brought a world of trouble down on us.' Something like that would have been a great conversation starter."

Gojyo was angry. Hakkai could tell by how rigidly he held himself, could hear it in the way Gojyo's breathing was so deep and precisely measured. He had every right to be so. Hakkai castigated himself silently: Gojyo was too good a man, even angry, to do so properly. As if to prove Hakkai's mental point, Gojyo ran a hand through Hakkai's hair and exhaled, his body slackening.

"We have these sorts of conversations together because they affect the both of us," said Gojyo. "Maybe I can help, somehow, even if it's just listening to you. Have you decided? Are we staying or going?"

Hakkai sighed.

"I'm not sure I can leave," said Hakkai.

"Kanaan," said Gojyo.

It wasn't a question, but Hakkai nodded anyway.

"Yes," he said.

And, though it hurt him almost as much as losing her had, Hakkai kept talking.

"You should go," he said. "Even if I don't, you should. I wouldn't want you to be hurt because of my inability to leave."

Gojyo's limbs tightened around him.

"No way," he said. "I'm not leaving you behind."

"They will probably sterilize everything," said Hakkai. "Even her…her—"

"Yeah," said Gojyo. "Too scared of the virus to do anything but. Not that there's any virus at all, but they don't know that for sure and they're not gonna feel safe about it until everything's gone."

Hakkai imagined the landscape denuded and brown, not a living thing in sight, even the soil wiped clean of its inhabitants. He shuddered.

"If we're still here, they'll probably zap us out of existence, too," said Gojyo.

"Before or after they take us in for questioning?" said Hakkai.

As a joke it fell a little flat. Gallows humor wasn't his forte. Gojyo laughed anyway.

"They'd probably interrogate us over satellite," he said. "Then poof! When they're convinced we're liars when we say we don't know shit."

"But we would be lying," said Hakkai. "Not that those in power would believe the truth."

Gojyo's laugh rumbled through the both of them.

"Then it's a good thing we're gonna hightail it out of here," said Gojyo.

Hakkai thought about arguing with Gojyo, but he knew Gojyo would argue back, would bull his way through any opposition until Hakkai capitulated.

"You're terribly stubborn," said Hakkai.

Gojyo shifted closer to him. He kissed Hakkai on the jaw. Hakkai could feel him smile. His breath puffed over Hakkai's face.

"I know," Gojyo said. "It's one of my best features."

Hakkai allowed Gojyo to roll him over. He forgot all about his worries, forgot about the lateness of the hour, forgot about everything but Gojyo and his touch. Hakkai fell asleep soon after.

 

The next day, at breakfast, Hakkai was determined to act as normal as possible. Still, it was rather a shock to see Sanzo, bruises and all, at his kitchen table. Sanzo glared his way through three cups of tea and a dry piece of toast, while Goku, at his elbow, plowed through pancakes and eggs and ham and fresh fruit and at least a half a pot of tea. The sight made Hakkai feel a little ill as he ate his own plate of food. Gojyo gave Goku the eye, then turned to Sanzo.

"I thought constructs were supposed to be more efficient than us mere mortals," said Gojyo. "He always eat like this?"

Gojyo dodged an apple core that Goku threw at him.

Sanzo, who had been staring at a wall, nodded. He sipped at his cup of tea and refused to actually look at any of them.

"More tea, Sanzo?" said Hakkai.

"No," said Sanzo.

Hakkai took his hand off the tea pot.

"Would you like anything else, Goku?" he said.

"I'm good," said Goku, around a mouthful of fruit.

The juice dribbled down his chin and he wiped at it carelessly with a napkin. He seemed to sense all eyes were on him. He crossed his arms.

"I still don't like you guys," he said. "But your food's pretty good."

Sanzo smacked him across the back of his head. Goku rubbed his scalp.

"Sanzo!" said Goku. "What was that for? I'm only bein' honest, and you're always going on about that."

"Idiot," said Sanzo. "Get over it. I've put up with your childish grudge long enough."

Sanzo turned, then, and looked Hakkai in the face. His voice was rough, and he didn't wear bandages today, so Hakkai could see how much damage he had done. Sanzo's throat was a mottled band of black, purple, and green, and there were small scabs fanned out at the edges where his claws must have dug in. He'd made Sanzo bleed. Hakkai felt dizzy.

Still, Sanzo seemed to bear him no ill will, and his declaration had some sort of effect on Goku, who went back to the remainders on his plate and no longer shot dirty looks at him or at Gojyo. Hakkai studied Sanzo's face carefully, wondering what it was that drew people to him. There was no question that he himself was drawn, and Goku, of course, through some purposeful combination of genetics. Even Gojyo admitted to a passing fancy, as it were.

"I'm going outside," said Goku.

He shoved back from the table.

"Is there a fence I should be watching for?" he said. "I don't wanna get shot or anything."

"When you get close to the barrier, you'll feel it," said Hakkai.

He was distracted by the angles of Sanzo's face. What did the red dot between his eyes signify? A mark of his caste, perhaps? Or was it a fashionable sign of beauty among his people?

"The hairs on the back of your neck will stand up," said Gojyo. "Static electricity's a big byproduct of the shielding. But try not to run into it, because you might get a nasty zap."

Before Hakkai could say anything else, Goku was out the door. Sanzo's eyes followed him, then snapped back to Hakkai and Gojyo.

"Quit staring at me like that," said Sanzo. "It's annoying."

Hakkai hadn't realized he was staring, but at the same time he had. He couldn't seem to help it. Again, he wondered what it was about Sanzo that was so different. Certainly it was not his winning personality.

"Quit being so uptight," said Gojyo. "You're hot, and neither of us is blind."

Sanzo spluttered. He went a little red in the cheeks, but Hakkai couldn't tell if it was embarrassment, anger, or something else.

"We're different species," said Sanzo. "That's disgusting."

"So?" said Gojyo. "Hakkai and I manage just fine. Of course, it helps that we're the same basic shape. Now I knew this girl once, from Trilian three, and she was more or less like us, except for the tentacles—"

This time it was Hakkai's turn to splutter.

"Gojyo!" he said. "I really don't care to hear about, er, your multipoedic adventures. And I'm sure Sanzo feels the same."

Sanzo nodded at him in agreement. And then Gojyo winked, just for him, and Hakkai felt particularly exasperated. Whether or not Gojyo had made it all up was somewhat immaterial, but to have him telling tales just to ease Sanzo around, to get him agreeing with Hakkai…Gojyo was incorrigible. It was wrong of Gojyo, even if it did please Hakkai to have Sanzo neither arguing nor barking orders at him, nor being overly neutral.

"Point is," said Gojyo. "If you don't loosen up a little, you'll miss out on a lot of great stuff."

Gojyo winked at Sanzo, and Sanzo grimaced.

"Like tentacles," said Sanzo. "I think I'll pass."

He stood and shook out his strange, white over-robe.

"I need some air," said Sanzo. "Hakkai."

He nodded to Hakkai. As Sanzo brushed past him, Hakkai fancied he saw consideration in Sanzo's eyes. Perhaps Gojyo hadn't been mistaken before when he'd claimed Sanzo had looked at him. Gojyo leered at Sanzo, who snorted. He averted his eyes and left the room—not out the front door, but, presumably, to the guest room he shared with Goku.

"I think that went well," said Gojyo. "He's totally warming up to us."

Hakkai merely shook his head.

 

The humor of the situation didn't last long. A palpable anxiety hung over the house and its occupants. Hakkai found himself quite impatient. They were all counting down, it seemed, until the time it would be safe to send their message. Sanzo spent most of the day cloistered in the guest room, coming out only briefly, so brief that Hakkai would barely catch a glimpse out of the corner of his eye before the door would shut again. Gojyo and Hakkai packed, while Goku and Hakuryuu played together outside.

Hakkai didn't know what to pack. He'd been in this house for such a long time. Gojyo, though he'd been there for a couple of years, hadn't accumulated much beyond his few possessions that hadn't been destroyed in the crash. Hakkai envied him that.

There were the basics, of course: clothing, food that would survive a possibly long trip. It would be useless to bring money, since currency systems were fluid and there was probably no exchange rate between his planet and wherever they might end up. There was no point in alerting the government by trying to withdraw any money anyway. Still, it stung to think that he and Gojyo might be dependent on Sanzo's goodwill.

Food and clothing aside, though, Hakkai felt lost. Books? Pictures? He paced the living room. He had nothing of Kanaan's. He doubted Sanzo would allow him to bring her remains, even if he dug them up himself, saving anyone else the trouble. He needed to bring his holo-emitters. Gojyo would want to bring whatever little electronic bits and pieces he found useful or interesting. Perhaps Hakkai could bring a few seeds or a plant or two of the friss-flowers. They were his favorite. He imagined himself on a far off planet, planting the flowers, watching them grow, and it pleased him. It pleased him more to think of Gojyo and Sanzo standing with him, and Goku in the ship, ready to pilot as they made their way in the universe. It was a pretty little fantasy. As he breathed in the heavy atmosphere of the house, he wished things were different.

Hakkai walked the rooms again and again, wondering how long it would take before Gojyo could send Sanzo's message. How long until his government lodged an official protest and the diplomatic stalling tactics were employed? How long did Hakkai have left before the moment when he said goodbye to everything he'd ever known, everything he'd ever worked toward?

He nearly jumped out of his skin when a hand landed on his shoulder. It was Gojyo. Gojyo's hand squeezed, firm.

"Hakkai," said Gojyo. "You in there?"

Gojyo must have been trying to get his attention for some time, then. Hakkai cleared his throat.

"I'm fine," said Hakkai.

"That wasn't what I asked," said Gojyo.

Hakkai tried to smile.

"But it was what you meant, was it not?" he said. "You're always looking out for me, aren't you, Gojyo?"

"Things will work out," said Gojyo. "Maybe not the way we want, but they'll work out all the same."

Gojyo hesitated, briefly quiet, then spoke again.

"I'm gonna send the message tonight," he said. "During peak traffic. I don't think we can wait longer, even though I'd like to. The longer we wait, the more time it give our government to act."

Hakkai nodded and went back to his packing, and Gojyo did the same.

 

Sending the message was almost anti-climactic. It took less than a minute: a few buttons pushed, and off it went. Still, they all witnessed it in silence, clustered in a semi-circle around the console in the living room.

"That's all she wrote," said Gojyo. "Here's hoping."

Sanzo inclined his head.

"If that's all, I'm going to bed," he said. "Let's go, Goku."

Hakkai's eyes were riveted on Sanzo as he left the room.

 

An insistent beeping in the night woke Hakkai and Gojyo. The computer flashed red at them and Gojyo rolled out of bed immediately.

"Shit," said Gojyo. "Watchdog's gone off."

Hakkai, half-asleep, struggled with the covers. Gojyo yanked them off, and they both hurried to the guest room. Gojyo flicked on the lights, and Goku and Sanzo both sat up in their beds.

"The hell are you doing?" said Sanzo. "It's the middle of the night."

Goku just yawned and blinked. Sanzo got out from under the covers. Hakkai tried hard not to notice his state of undress: his ship's suit, that skintight marvel, was peeled down all the way to his hips.

"They know," Gojyo said. "Government caught your message. We have to leave. Now."

There was a dull boom, some distance away. Hakkai turned, in horror, to look out the windows, and Gojyo was half a step behind him.

"They're bombarding us," said Gojyo.

Sanzo joined them at the window. Goku rushed to him and attached himself to Sanzo's arm. They all watched as fire blossomed, explosion by explosion, at the visible edge of Hakkai's property.

"They say it's easier to ask for forgiveness than to ask permission," Sanzo said.

He shook Goku off and wriggled into his clothing. The zipper sounded loud between the too-close explosions.

"They will claim it was another plague," said Hakkai. "And by the time Sanzo's people got here and were able to make explanations, we would already be incinerated in a tragically overzealous attempt to contain the disease."

"At least," said Goku. "At least it's not a war."

There was something feral in his voice, something hard that made Hakkai look out of the corner of his eye, something that made Sanzo look down at him and plant a hand on the back of Goku's neck.

"You said you didn't remember the past," Sanzo said, offhand. "Only the storage."

"I don't," said Goku. "But my body does."

Hakkai felt a shiver in the ground, and a piercing whine split the air. He gritted his teeth against the noise. Goku shuddered and pressed closer to Sanzo.

"Shit," said Gojyo, again. "There goes one of the transmitters. We've got to go. Now, before the whole thing comes down and they blow us all sky high."

"Right," said Hakkai. "Everyone, get your things."

They met less than five minutes later in the kitchen. Gojyo threw back the hatch to the cellar, and, carrying with the few things they'd chosen to take, the four of them descended. Hakkai didn't even look back, in the end, though he might have liked to look backward at the stairs leading into the cellar, to the square of light he knew was there, coming from the kitchen. His stomach churned, and so he tried not to feel anything at all.

Into the tunnels they went. It was an agony of waiting, breath held, that no one else was in this end of the tunnels. Even though Hakkai had had a certain assuredness for Sanzo's sake, a certain bravado he upheld, the truth was that he was not at all sure that their preventative measures would even buy them the time to get to the ships. That anxiety, those fears, dogged his every breath as they slipped over wet rocks and shuffled, nearly blind, through the dark twistings and turnings of the tunnels. Hakkai couldn't tell if it was his own breathing that was so ragged, or if it was someone else. All of them were grim and quiet as they focused on the small rings of light their flashlights provided.

"How much further?" said Sanzo.

There was a sharpness in his voice that some primal part of Hakkai responded to, even in this least opportune of situations.

"Are you claustrophobic?" said Hakkai.

He tried for casual but was unsure if he was successful in his effort.

"No," said Sanzo, but his voice was strained. "Just a touch."

It was Sanzo who was having the worst time of it, then.

"I'm sorry," said Hakkai. "We're not yet halfway."

The ground above them shook, and earth and little bits of rock rained down. Hakkai mourned. The land above would never be the same. It would be destroyed—not now, but soon. He touched Sanzo's shoulder, and Sanzo jerked away like Hakkai had burned him. Hakkai felt Gojyo's presence in the dark, a bulwark against the hurt he felt.

"Take your sympathy and shove it," said Sanzo. "It's better than the alternative."

 

They kept going. It took countless minutes. Hakkai lost count. It could have been hours of darkness and damp and freezing in place every time there was a strange sound. They bumped into each other, stubbed toes and barked shins. Hakkai almost grew used to the steady drift of grit that came from overhead, sliding down the back of his neck and grinding. Sanzo continued to strain to breathe. It was a great relief when Hakkai spotted the mouth of the tunnel ahead. He switched off his light and they walked the last few yards in total darkness.

Coming out of the tunnel, halfway up on a little hill that overlooked the cement landing pad, the four of them prepared for a mad dash to the dreadfully, terribly exposed ships. They picked their way to the bottom of the hill. Hakuryuu appeared out of nowhere and came to a back-winging stop on Hakkai's shoulder.

The shielding overhead whined like overheated engines, and he could see the thinness and fragility of the safety they offered. Another enormous explosion came and the barrier flickered out.

Hakkai watched in horror as rockets came screaming in, not toward them, but toward the ships.

"Fuck," said Gojyo.

They were too far from the ships.

The force of the explosion knocked them all back a few yards, had them stumbling to their feet with ringing ears afterward.

"She's toast," said Gojyo. "Fuck. I loved that one like a baby."

True. Gojyo's ship was a wreck of smoking scrap, her parts spread over a few hundred yards. It was a miracle none of them had been hit with shrapnel. Hakkai made a quick check of the four of them. Some soot, some dirt, but no blood. The _Maten_ , on the other hand…

"Shit, Sanzo," said Gojyo. "What the fuck's it made of?"

There wasn't so much as a scratch on the _Maten_ 's hull. Even as they watched, the little soot that had come from Gojyo's ship flaked off, seemingly on its own.

"Come on," said Sanzo. "Before they start trying to take us out, instead of the ships."

"But how will we get there?" said Hakkai. "We'll never make it. Can they damage your ship?"

Sanzo looked at him, scathing, like he was an idiot.

"We're going to run," said Sanzo. "Those piss-ants don't have a chance against the _Maten_. As soon as they fire again, we run."

They watched as another round made vast craters in the landing pad, sending chips of cement creasing through the air. Hakkai felt a sharp sting across his arm, but he had no time to pay attention to that because they were running. The breath sawed through his chest, and he flew over the broken landscape. He couldn't afford to see if the others were with him or not. He had to make it to the ship. Yard by yard, Hakkai chased it down.

As he approached, the ship began to brighten. It luminesced. It fluoresced, searing itself into his retinas and making afterimages glow when he blinked. At last, he was ten yards away. The dreadful shriek of rockets grew suddenly, taking prevalence over even the strange golden brightness of the _Maten_. He cast a quick eye to the sky, saw the rockets and their deadly payloads closing in.

"The ship," said Sanzo. "Get to the ship."

It took Hakkai a long, blinking moment to realize that Sanzo, sweaty and hot, was pressed against him and screaming into his ear. Gojyo and Goku were close behind, no more than a foot. Hakkai pushed on, numb to everything but the adrenaline and the throb of the muscles in his legs.

A long arm reached in front of him, and Sanzo's palm met the hull of the ship. The rest of Sanzo's body jolted against Hakkai's, and he rammed into the side of the ship. Hakkai stared up at the rockets. The blood drummed in his ears.

The _Maten_ 's brightness flared, incandescent, and exploded outward, consuming all of Hakkai's vision in bright gold-white. He felt himself being dragged forward, like standing at the wrong end of a wind tunnel, like falling off a great height with all of gravity's force moving him along.

 

With no conscious memory of how he got there, Hakkai found himself strapped into a seat in the cockpit of Sanzo's ship. Gojyo looked similarly disoriented, but Goku and Sanzo were already up and scrambling underneath the control panels, putting back the data crystals Sanzo had removed.

"Jeez, Sanzo, what'd you take that one for?" said Goku. "You wanted us to leave in a hurry, right?"

"Shut up and fix it," said Sanzo.

Sanzo spared a withering glance for his passengers.

"You'll be in the way if you move," he said. "Stay where you are."

Hakkai watched Goku and Sanzo work to set the ship's computers to rights. Faster than Hakkai might have believed, Goku slid the last crystal into place. The panels all lit up and he punched in a quick sequence. Hakkai felt the ship start to vibrate underneath them. The view screen at the front of the cockpit blinked on.

He looked to Sanzo and stared: the red dot in the middle of his forehead was glowing, pulsing along with the engines. When the engines settled, the light did too, a steady point of light that cast shadows across Sanzo's face. Sanzo turned away quickly, his face a touch more sour than usual.

"Take us up," he said. "And quick. Those morons outside are using bigger charges and it stings."

Sanzo could feel what the ship was feeling? Hakkai's eyes widened at the thought.

"Sorry," said Goku. "Not gonna be as smooth a take-off as usual. Hang on tight!"

He and Sanzo sat in the pilot and co-pilot's chairs. Hakkai was somewhat fascinated and somewhat sickened to see the ship buckle the two of them in by itself: belts and straps slithered across the two of them and snapped into place.

Goku ramped up a lever and took hold of a stick in the center of his console. He nudged it forward and Hakkai felt the ship leave the ground. His claws dug into the arms of his chair. He could see the energy of the government shields ahead of them. They were headed straight for it.

The _Maten_ gained momentum slowly, pushing up through the barriers the government had erected. Sanzo grunted in front of him, and a bit of something—electricity?—arced around him and dissipated through the view screen at the very front of the cockpit. Hakkai saw it leap to join the rest of the barrier energy. The shielding squealed along the hull, reminiscent of the rockets that had descended, and Hakkai gritted his teeth. The ship cut through the energy, advancing one inch at a time. With a jolt that shoved Hakkai back in his seat, the _Maten_ broke through and accelerated, burning a path through the lower atmosphere.

"Shit," said Sanzo. "Could you have been any rougher, you imbecile?"

Hakkai could tell that Sanzo would have hit Goku if they weren't strapped in place so securely.

"Sorry," said Goku. "We're clear, though. Bye-bye, planet!"

Hakkai twisted, straining to see the view screen more clearly. He watched helplessly as fire consumed the red of the fields, blooming and then shrinking, leaving black and brown behind. Even that black and brown faded as they put the vapor of the cloud layer between them and the surface. Only the restraints that buckled Hakkai into the seat kept him upright. He didn't care about the bump that heralded their arrival in orbit, or the little jerk the ship gave as they skipped out of orbit and into open space.

Hakkai closed his eyes, imprinting the last glimpse of his planet on his memory. He didn't even have a cutting of one of the plants. He didn't have anything. That was it. It was all gone.

The restraints released suddenly, and Hakkai pitched forward, out of his seat. Gojyo jumped up and, instead of landing in a heap on the floor, Hakkai thumped against his chest. He exhaled, shaky.

"Shh," said Gojyo. "I know."

Gojyo looked up, and Hakkai looked too. Sanzo loomed over the both of them, the red dot quiescent and barely bright. He watched them as if he didn't understand what he saw. Hakkai felt shame. He must be such a mess right now.

"You want me to take them to a cabin?" said Goku.

"No," said Sanzo.

"You sure?" said Goku.

He half-rose out of the pilot's seat and the ship took a sudden dive. Goku swore and sat again, frantically working to control the ship's errant behavior. Sanzo marched over and gave Goku the full flat of his hand across the back of his head.

"Idiot!" said Sanzo. "I'm disengaged. Are you trying to kill us all?"

"Okay, okay," said Goku. "Geez. I didn't notice, okay?"

Sanzo came back to Gojyo and Hakkai.

"This way," he said.

They followed him into the corridor. Hakkai was grateful that he didn't feel the same crippling vertigo that had assaulted him on his last visit to the ship. Gojyo didn't seem to be affected, either. The corridor was much brighter now that the ship was running, though it was no less utilitarian than before.

"Nice," said Gojyo.

Sanzo led them to a cabin, above whose door a blue light glowed. To Hakkai's surprise, their luggage was already inside, along with Hakuryuu, who was curled up on one of the beds, fast asleep.

"What the crap?" said Gojyo. "How'd that happen?"

"The ship took initiative," said Sanzo.

Gojyo stared at Sanzo.

"The ship did?" he said.

Sanzo looked irritated.

"It's a very special ship," he said. "It has a fucking mind of its own, sometimes."

He banged the interior wall.

"A slow and stupid mind," he said. "Why the hell did you stick these two next to my cabin, huh?"

The ship said nothing. Gojyo's eyebrows jumped.

"Okay then," he said.

"We will move," said Hakkai.

He felt gray with fatigue at the thought.

Sanzo turned around.

"No you won't," he said. "The _Maten_ would only move it back, which would piss me off even more, because then the ship would sulk and mope."

Gojyo and Hakkai shared a bemused look.

"You think I'm crazy," said Sanzo. "I'm not. You can verify with Goku. If the _Maten_ gets into a snit, it won't accelerate beyond half light speed."

"We'll be sure to," said Hakkai.

He felt very, very tired, too worn out to argue with an arguably insane man. Gojyo's arms wrapped around him more tightly.

"We're gonna catch a nap," said Gojyo. "If you don't mind."

Sanzo shook his head.

"Good," said Gojyo.

He led Hakkai to the bed. Hakkai lay on top of it, exhausted but all too conscious of Sanzo's eyes on him. He couldn’t bring himself to care that Sanzo was probably judging him, judging him negatively, as he lay prone. Hakkai felt a silent staring contest going on, and he looked to Gojyo, who was indeed staring intensely at Sanzo. Sanzo's eyes broke from Gojyo's and locked on Hakkai's.

"I am sorry for your loss," said Sanzo.

Sanzo turned and left. The cabin door shut behind him, and Hakkai and Gojyo were alone.

"Shit," said Gojyo. "What an ass. C'mre, Hakkai."

Gojyo lay, too, and he pulled Hakkai close. He let Gojyo's steady heartbeat soothe him.

"Sanzo meant it," said Hakkai. "When he said he was sorry."

"Oh yeah?" said Gojyo. "And how could you tell?"

Hakkai could tell Gojyo thought he was humoring him.

"I just could," said Hakkai. "There was something in his face, perhaps."

Gojyo said nothing after that, and Hakkai was grateful. He just wanted to rest. Just a little while. He drifted into sleep.

Hakkai awoke alone. He got out of the unfamiliar bed, listened to the unfamiliar noises aboard the ship, and wondered where everyone had gone. He opened the cabin's door and prepared to swing out into the corridor and froze. There, hanging in midair, caught between the two gravities of cabin and corridor, was a single red friss-flower. He reached for it, unbelieving. It was beautifully, beautifully real. He wondered how Gojyo had managed to keep it safe.

He startled when the door to his left swung open and Sanzo came out. Hakkai hid the flower behind him, not wanting Sanzo to see it. Sanzo didn't seem to approve of affection, and the flower was surely a sign of that.

"You slept eighteen hours," said Sanzo.

"Did I?" said Hakkai. "I must have needed it."

He didn't feel refreshed at all. His arm throbbed where the cement chip had winged him, and he was filthy. He felt muddy, muddled, and just as tired as he had when he'd collapsed on the bed.

"Gojyo and Goku are having a meal," said Sanzo. "You should eat, too. I can't have you dying just because you're too miserable to eat."

Sanzo's concern seemed awkward, and indeed Sanzo looked away when he said this.

"I really don't feel hungry," said Hakkai. "But thank you."

He would be quite content just to stay in his cabin and sleep some more, dreaming of red flowers and happier times. Later, perhaps, he could rise and wash and, if he were lucky, he would stomach the thought of eating.

"It is the nature of all things to change," said Sanzo. "Now is no different."

Hakkai nodded.

"That doesn't mean I don't deserve some time to adjust," he said. "I will join you all later."

Sanzo shrugged and started to walk away. Hakkai felt the blossom behind his back.

"That flower won't last, either," said Sanzo. "I don't have another. You're going to have to adjust quickly."

Hakkai was stupefied. He couldn't have acted nonchalant if his life had depended on it. Sanzo didn't turn around, and Hakkai was grateful for that.

Long after Sanzo had disappeared elsewhere in the ship, Hakkai smiled to himself. Sanzo's gift felt like a promise. Hakkai went back to bed.

 

It was a week before they decided it was unlikely anyone was coming after them and the tension in the cockpit—indeed, in every part of the ship—calmed down enough for the four of them to think about the future.

Goku landed them on a little moon: uninhabited, but with some atmosphere so they could get off the ship for a little while. It wasn't much to look at: lots of rocks, lots of dust, and nothing alive that the _Maten_ 's formidable scanners could detect.

"Where're we going to go now?" said Goku. "Is there somewhere we can take you guys?"

He kicked a rock, and Hakkai watched it fly across the surface.

Sanzo scowled.

"We are not a taxi service," he said.

"It's your fault we had to leave!" said Gojyo. "You owe us!"

Sanzo sneered at Gojyo. Hakkai felt the need to try to head off the incipient fight.

"Well, our last visitors had invited us to visit, should we ever be in the neighborhood, so to speak," said Hakkai.

"And where might that neighborhood be?" said Sanzo.

"The Ox-King nebula," said Hakkai.

Sanzo's back went stiff.

"The Ox-King nebula?" he said.

"That is what Kougaiji told me," said Hakkai. "He gave us a star chart, as well, if you're unfamiliar with the area."

Sanzo was quiet, and Goku looked stricken.

"We were on our way there when we found you two," said Sanzo.

"What a strange coincidence," said Hakkai.

"There are no coincidences," said Sanzo.

"Oh, and you're the fucking voice of experience, are you?" said Gojyo.

"Nobody asked you, jerk-off," said Goku. "We going to go there, Sanzo?"

He looked to Sanzo for confirmation.

"Why the hell not?" said Sanzo. "Not like it matters. And if it'll get you two off my back, so much the better."

The sideways look Sanzo gave Hakkai and Gojyo said it all, though. If they wanted, they had a place here. At that moment, Hakkai wanted with all his heart.

"Why Sanzo," said Gojyo. "I didn't think you cared!"

He slung an arm around Sanzo's shoulder, and Sanzo shoved him off.

"Fuck off and die," said Sanzo.

He boarded the _Maten_ , leaving Goku alone with Gojyo and Hakkai. Goku smiled.

"He likes you guys," said Goku. "He's never been so nice in his life."

Hakkai and Gojyo looked at each other, then looked at Goku's earnest face.

"And if he likes you, well, then it's good enough for me," said Goku. "Don't screw it up, yeah?"

Goku nodded to them, and he boarded the ship as well. Gojyo and Hakkai stared after him.

"I think Sanzo's co-pilot just gave us his blessing," said Gojyo.

"Don't be foolish," said Hakkai. "Sanzo is the co-pilot. But yes, I believe Goku did."

Gojyo whistled, hands in his pockets.

"So what are you going to do about it?" said Gojyo. "'Cause I'm going to follow your lead on this one."

Hakkai felt himself begin to smile.

"I'm not sure," he said. "But I think it might work out all the better for it."

 

Together, they boarded the ship. They strapped themselves into their seats in the cockpit. Hakkai felt the engines thrumming, felt the ship yearning to break free of the piddling restraints of atmosphere and gravity. He knew exactly how the ship felt.

"Ready for take-off?" said Goku.

"Get on with it," said Sanzo.

"You bet," said Gojyo.

"Yes," said Hakkai. "I'm ready."

 

The _Maten_ shot off into the galaxy, a golden gleaming between the stars.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's all, folks! (Well, okay. I might get around to some sort of realized threesome epilogue, but don't hold your breath!)


End file.
